Education-Specific Estimates of Life Expectancy and Age-Specific Disability in the U.S. Elderly Population 1982 to 1991

The authors used mortality data for 1982 to 1991 linked to survey records from the 1982, 1984, and 1989 National Long Term Care Surveys to calculate gender differences over age in mortality and functional status for high (8 or more years of schooling) and low (less than 8 years of schooling) education subgroups. Males and females with high education maintained better functioning at later ages than those with low education. The authors also found that mortality was higher, after conditioning on disability, in both the male and female low-education than the male and female high-education groups. The size of the education effect on both disability and mortality was large, for example, about 7.6 years difference in female life expectancy at age 65; a roughly 2-year difference for males.