Does college education reduce the risk of schizophrenia? Evidence from a college enrollment expansion policy in China.
Schizophr Res
; 264: 519-525, 2024 Feb.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38295748
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Schizophrenia occurs worldwide, and the health, and economic burden is substantial. As one of the common proxies of socioeconomic status (SES), education was reported to be associated with the risk of developing schizophrenia. However, there is no causal evidence about the relationship. This paper explores the health benefits of college education for schizophrenia.METHOD:
Based on exogenous variation in college enrollment across regions and cohorts induced by college enrollment expansion policy, we use instrument variable (IV) estimate strategy to estimate impacts of college education on the risk of schizophrenia with the data from Second National Sample Survey on Disability.RESULTS:
We find that college education reduces the risk of developing schizophrenia by 4.2 percentage points. Some further analyses suggest the causal protective effect is only found among men, rural, and low-income individuals.CONCLUSIONS:
These findings provide new evidence for the causal relationship between college education and schizophrenia, and add to the literature on the health benefits of education.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Schizophrenia
Type of study:
Etiology_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Humans
/
Male
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
En
Journal:
Schizophr Res
Journal subject:
PSIQUIATRIA
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article