Genotyping the dead: Using offspring as proxy to estimate the genetic correlation of education and longevity

Authors: Dalton Conley, Ramina Sotoudeh

In the work on the social determinants of health, it has long been recognized that, among the strongest (if not the strongest) predictor of morbidity and mortality, is educational attainment—that is, the number of years of formal schooling. To what extent the relationship between education and longevity is a causal one running from schooling to health has been of intense interest to social scientists. Of course, ill health can truncate a schooling career, but there is also adequate reason to suspect that formal schooling does indeed improve health and well-being through a number of channels ranging from improved impulse control to better ability to understand health risks to improved economic circumstances. The extent to which we can isolate the mechanisms behind this strong relationship will help us design better interventions to promote health and health equity (not to mention, to mitigate the adverse effects of ill health on education and its related outcomes).