Disentangling potential causal effects of educational duration on well-being, and mental and physical health outcomes.

Autor:	van de Weijer MP; Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.; Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam University Medical Centres, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.; Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Psychiatry, Amsterdam University Medical Centers, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands., Demange PA; Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.; Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam University Medical Centres, Amsterdam, The Netherlands., Pelt DHM; Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.; Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam University Medical Centres, Amsterdam, The Netherlands., Bartels M; Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.; Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam University Medical Centres, Amsterdam, The Netherlands., Nivard MG; Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.; Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam University Medical Centres, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Jazyk:	angličtina
Zdroj:	Psychological medicine [Psychol Med] 2024 May; Vol. 54 (7), pp. 1403-1418. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Nov 15.
DOI:	10.1017/S003329172300329X
Abstrakt:	Background: Extensive research has focused on the potential benefits of education on various mental and physical health outcomes. However, whether the associations reflect a causal effect is harder to establish. Methods: To examine associations between educational duration and specific aspects of well-being, anxiety and mood disorders, and cardiovascular health in a sample of European Ancestry UK Biobank participants born in England and Wales, we apply four different causal inference methods (a natural policy experiment leveraging the minimum school-leaving age, a sibling-control design, Mendelian randomization [MR], and within-family MR), and assess if the methods converge on the same conclusion. Results: A comparison of results across the four methods reveals that associations between educational duration and these outcomes appears predominantly to be the result of confounding or bias rather than a true causal effect of education on well-being and health outcomes. Although we do consistently find no associations between educational duration and happiness, family satisfaction, work satisfaction, meaning in life, anxiety, and bipolar disorder, we do not find consistent significant associations across all methods for the other phenotypes (health satisfaction, depression, financial satisfaction, friendship satisfaction, neuroticism, and cardiovascular outcomes). Conclusions: We discuss inconsistencies in results across methods considering their respective limitations and biases, and additionally discuss the generalizability of our findings in light of the sample and phenotype limitations. Overall, this study strengthens the idea that triangulation across different methods is necessary to enhance our understanding of the causal consequences of educational duration.
Databáze:	MEDLINE
Externí odkaz:	Zobrazit plný text záznamu