The relationship between education level, lifestyle risk factors and all-cause mortality has been revealed by a study published in the journal Nature. JAMA Medical Forum.
The team evaluated 415,764 US adults aged 25 to 84 from the 1997 to 2014 National Health Interview Survey to establish an association between socioeconomic status (SES – due to exposure to unhealthy lifestyle factors) and mortality.
‘Lower socioeconomic groups (SES) with unhealthy lifestyles such as smoking, inactivity and alcohol use, are thought to be associated with an increased risk of death.’
Participants were followed up to December 31, 2015, followed by data analysis from May 1 to October 31, 2021.
It is seen that Lifestyle factors contributed to 66% (men) and 80% (women) of the association between education level and all-cause mortality. An unhealthy group of lifestyle factors is one of the main causes of inequality in mortality.
Thus, the study indicates that differences in exposure to lifestyle risk factors are an important arbiter of socioeconomic inequalities in mortality, thus requiring necessity of public health interventions.
Source: Medindia
