Health Literacy and Mortality Among Elderly Persons

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Abstract
Education, as measured by the number of years of school completed, is an important predictor of mortality.1,2 Wong and colleagues3 reported that, in the United States, persons without a high-school education lost 9.2 more potential life-years per person than did individuals who had completed high school or more. Although the association between education and life expectancy is well documented, the underlying causal pathways are poorly understood. Much of the association between education and health is caused by the positive effect of education on job opportunities, annual income, housing, access to nutritious foods, and health insurance.4-6 Higher levels of education could also have direct effects on health through greater health knowledge acquired during schooling and greater personal empowerment and self-efficacy.7-9