Search

Background: The association between educational attainment (EA) and arterial thrombotic disease has been reported, but the causal relationship between EA and venous thromboembolism (VTE) is not clear. We aimed to assess the causal effect of EA on VTE using the two-sample mendelian randomization (MR) method., Methods: Data mining was conducted on the genome wide association studies (GWAS), with exposure factor EA and outcome factor VTE. Two-sample Mendelian Randomization (TSMR) analysis was conducted, with the results obtained from the random effects inverse variance weighted method (IVW). Use the MR-Egger method for pleiotropy analysis and leave one method for sensitivity analysis to verify the reliability of the data., Results: Genetically predicted decreased EA was associated with a decreased risk of VTE in both the FinnGen consortium and UK Biobank (FinnGen-VTE: OR = 0.848; 95% CI 0.776-0.927; P = 2.84 × 10 -4 ; UKB-VTE OR = 0.996; 95% CI 0.994-0.999; P = 0.008) under a multiplicative random-effects IVW model. Results were consistent in all sensitivity analyses and no horizontal pleiotropy was detected., Conclusions: The MR technique instructed a potential inverse causative relationship between EA and occurrence of VTE. Therefore, patients with low EA should be more vigilant about the occurrence of VTE., Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: As the previously collected and published data were re-analyzed, it was determined that obtaining additional ethics approval was unnecessary. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2025. The Author(s).)

Because educational attainment is associated with well-being in the long term, it is important to understand the developmental processes that enhance academic outcomes during adolescence. Also, although the importance of friends is well documented in adolescence, little is known about how close friends' characteristics work together with youth's own characteristics to shape adolescents' educational trajectories. This study fills an important gap in knowledge by focusing on how middle school students' academic achievement and externalizing problems are associated with their friends' achievement and externalizing problems over time, and how these variables predict educational attainment in adulthood. This study innovates by examining developmental cascades involving adolescents' academic achievement, externalizing problems, and these characteristics in their close friends in the context of random-intercept cross-lagged panel modeling (RI-CLPM), which disentangles within-person changes and between-person differences during the three years of middle school. The sample included 998 middle school students (M age at recruitment: 12.21 years old; SD = 0.37 years), 42.3% of whom were European Americans, 29.0% African Americans, 6.8% Latinos, 5.2%, Asian Americans, 16.2% youth of other ethnicities, including mixed ethnicity, and 47.3% were female. At the within-person level, only one type of interdomain cascade was corroborated, as youth displaying high levels of externalizing problems reported close friendships with low-achieving friends in the next year. At the between-person level, only the random intercept representing the stability of adolescents' academic achievement throughout middle school predicted educational attainment in adulthood (average of 28 years old). In essence, this study clarifies that the etiological mechanisms leading up to adult educational attainment involve only adolescents' own stable academic achievement, and not their externalizing behaviors or friends' academic achievement and externalizing behaviors., Competing Interests: Compliance with ethical standards. Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethical Approval: The research protocol complied with the American Psychological Association’s ethical standards in the treatment of human participants. The research protocol was approved by the University of Oregon and University of Quebec at Montreal ethics committees. Informed Consent: Adolescents and their parents were provided with a letter explaining the study and both provided written consent before their participation. Each time they completed a questionnaire for the study, participants and their parents received monetary compensation., (© 2025. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Using two polygenic scores (PGS) for educational attainment in a biomedical study of all those born in a single week in Great Britain in 1958 we show that the genetic predisposition for educational attainment is associated with labour market participation and wages over the life-course for men and women. Those with a higher PGS spend more time in employment and full-time employment and, when in employment, earn higher hourly wages. The employment associations are four times larger for women than for men. Conditional on employment, the PGS wage associations are sizeable, persistent and similar for men and women through to age 55. A one standard deviation increase in the PGS is associated with a 5-10 log point increase in hourly earnings. The size of the association is a little smaller for men aged 23. These associations are robust to non-random selection into employment and to controls for parental education. Between one-quarter and one-half of the PGS association with time in employment, and one-third to one-half of the PGS association with earnings, are mediated via educational attainment. Our results suggest that genetic endowments of a cohort born a half century ago continued to play a significant role in their fortunes in the labor market of the 21st Century., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest Alex Bryson and David Wilkinson thank the ESRC (grant number ES/S012583/1) for funding. Tim Morris and David Bann are supported by the ESRC (grant number ES/W013142/1). None of the authors has a conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Aims: To measure effects between educational attainment and alcohol use as a driver of unequal alcohol-attributable mortality., Design: Nation-wide cohort study using a longitudinal design, linking data from the 1997-2018 National Health Interview Survey to mortality data of the National Death Index in 2019. The study has an average follow-up time of 10.7 years (SD = 6.4)., Setting: United States., Participants: Nationally representative sample of adults aged 25 years and older., Measurements: The outcome was time to 100% alcohol-attributable mortality, censored or last presumed alive by 31 December 2019. Socioeconomic status was operationalized via educational attainment; alcohol use was self-reported and operationalized using a categorical measure with lifetime abstainers as reference category., Findings: Of a total of 562 632 adults, 901 (635 men and 266 women) died during follow-up from a 100% alcohol-attributable cause of death [15 per 100 000 person years (PY)]. We found a strong interaction effect between low education and Category III alcohol use (>60 g and >40 g per day for men and women, respectively), which was of additive nature as shown by the Aalen's additive hazards model, with 83.68 additional deaths per 100 000 PY (95% confidence interval = 16.48-150.87) found in individuals with low education with Category III drinking compared with a situation when there was no interaction between the two risk factors. A large and statistically significant relative excess risk due to interaction (RERI) of 32.05 from the Cox model supported the interaction. For individuals with low education, the risk associated with Category III drinking was double that for those with high education., Conclusions: In the United States, people with combined low education and high alcohol consumption (>60 g/day for men, >40 g/day for women) appear to have a higher risk of 100% alcohol-attributable mortality compared with other combinations of educational attainment and drinking., (© 2025 Society for the Study of Addiction.)

Introduction: Globally in 2024, 1 in 5 women aged 20-24 years worldwide had been married before the age of 18 years. One reason for this persistent prevalence of underage marriage may be the slow change in social norms relating to education levels and women's marriage age. However, we know little about how norms change, and whether they vary by socio-demographic characteristics. We aimed to investigate changes in social norms across generations in rural Maharashtra, India., Methods: To understand the status quo, we identified education levels and marriage ages typical of contemporary young adults in rural Maharashtra using the National Family Health Survey. To see if norms have shifted across generations, we analysed data on education and marriage age in 659 parent-adolescent dyads from the Pune Maternal Nutrition Study (PMNS) in rural Maharashtra. To ascertain if norms might shift in the future, we investigated adolescents' aspirations for their future hypothetical children's education and marriage, and classified adolescents as wanting (a) their children to decide themselves, (b) more education and later marriage age, or (c) the status quo. We assessed whether these aspirations differed by socio-demographic characteristics., Results: Compared to the status quo and PMNS adults, PMNS adolescents had substantially more education, and girls were marrying slightly later. About 70% of the adolescents wanted their children to themselves decide their schooling. The remainder of both sexes wanted their children to have the same education as them (15 years). Only 10% of adolescent girls and 14% of boys wanted their child to decide their own marriage age. Most adolescents wanted a later marriage age for their children than their own experience. Lower educated and early married girls aspired for greater education for their children. More educated boys aspired for later marriage for their children., Discussion: Education norms have changed by a larger magnitude than marriage age norms. Adolescents are already attaining their education aspirations, but aspire for later marriage of their children, more so for their hypothetical sons than daughters. Since senior household members remain influential in marriage decisions, it may take time before adolescents' aspirations for their children become a new norm., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (© 2025 Marphatia, Wells, Reid, Poullas, Bhalerao, Yajnik and Yajnik.)

Persistent racial disparities in low birth weight (LBW) in the United States may be better understood through the adoption of a life course perspective that considers differential exposure and vulnerability of Black and White women to socioeconomic position across generations. Using a multigenerational dataset of singleton birth certificates from South Carolina from 1989 to 2020 linked along the maternal line, we constructed intergenerational social mobility trajectories of grandmaternal and maternal education and compared unadjusted and adjusted associations between trajectories and LBW among Black and White women. We found that White women were more likely to be upwardly mobile, and Black women to be downwardly mobile. We found a protective association between upward mobility and LBW for all White women, but only for the most highly educated Black women, consistent with the theory of marginalization-related diminished returns. We also observed a difference by race in the association between downward mobility and LBW, such that high childhood socioeconomic position better buffered low adulthood socioeconomic position for White women than Black women, consistent with theories of compensatory advantage. Finally, we observed racial disparities in the prevalence of LBW even at the highest levels of maternal education, highlighting the inability of even high socioeconomic position across two generations to reduce Black/White disparities in LBW., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors have no financial or personal competing interests to declare., (Copyright © 2025 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Research on the consequences of residential mobility for educational outcomes is inconclusive about when and for whom moving is detrimental or beneficial. Whether moving during childhood impacts educational attainment depends on how often, how far and at which age one moves; and on whether the neighbourhood conditions improve or decline with the move. This study aims to better understand under which circumstances moving during childhood impacts educational attainment by studying residential mobility and neighbourhood trajectories of children born in different types of neighbourhoods and how this is associated with completion of tertiary education. Using longitudinal individual-level register data for all children born in the metropolitan areas of Sweden in 1990, children's residential and neighbourhood mobility is followed from birth until age 16, with completion of tertiary education measured at age 26. We employ a multidimensional perspective, applying multichannel sequence analysis to identify residential trajectories based on various mobility indicators and socioeconomic neighbourhood trajectories, stratified by the neighbourhood socioeconomic composition at birth. We find that trajectories differ by the neighbourhood type children are born in. Trajectories can be roughly categorized into three different levels of frequency - stayers, low and high residential mobility - with variations in moving distance and neighbourhood trajectories. Descriptive results show that trajectories vary by the neighbourhood of origin, family structure and socioeconomic background. Regression analyses reveal that one-time movers are not different from stayers in their educational attainment, while frequent movers are less likely to have completed tertiary education by age 26 across all neighbourhood types., (Copyright © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

An examination of women's experience on public transport in Bangladesh and Cambodia found that victimization does reduce perceived safety or transport use. In a cultural context where women are socialized to fear and avoid public spaces, experiencing victimization may confirm rather than change previous beliefs. Moreover, it is possible that the participants' use of public transport was driven by necessity rather than choice and that they were unable to change travel patterns in response to victimization. These findings underscore the importance of targeting public violence toward women and the broader societal norms that limit their participation in public life., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Cognitive impairment is pronounced in forcibly displaced populations. This study examined how education and English proficiency are associated with cognitive difficulties between refugee and non-refugee older immigrants. Analyses assessed the moderating effect of refugee status on the association of education and English proficiency with cognitive difficulty. Results revealed that higher educational attainment and English proficiency were significantly associated with decreased odds of reporting cognitive difficulty. Further, refugees who had completed high school and were English proficient exhibited greater cognitive resilience. The implications emphasize the need for policies and focused interventions related to education and English language programs for resettled refugees.

Objectives: To explore whether family guidance regarding Internet (FGI) mitigates the effect of educational attainment on older adults' eHealth literacy through different Internet uses and identify which types of FGI improve eHealth literacy among low-educated older adults effectively., Methods: A total of 490 Chinese adults aged 60 and above completed the eHealth Literacy Scale, an Internet use checklist, and self-reported their educational attainment and FGI frequency., Results: With adequate FGI, educational attainment was not related to informational Internet use, recreational Internet use, and eHealth literacy. Instrumental, informational, and recreational FGI predicted low-educated older adults' Internet uses and eHealth literacy positively., Conclusions: FGI mitigates older adults' eHealth literacy inequality due to educational attainment and indirectly narrows this gap through the mediations of informational and recreational Internet use. Informational, instrumental, and recreational FGI play key roles in improving eHealth literacy among low-educated older adults., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflicting interests., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Breastfeeding is important for early childhood nutrition and health. The positive effects on educational outcomes may be attributed to socioeconomic factors. Socioeconomic status is not a strong predictor of breastfeeding in sub-Saharan African countries. Yet, few studies have investigated the association between breastfeeding and educational outcomes in these countries., Objective: This study investigated the association between breastfeeding duration and children's educational attainment in rural Southwest Uganda., Methods: We analysed longitudinal data on 3018 children who had information on breastfeeding and were followed for at least 5 years, with at least one primary school grade recorded by 2005. Data on breastfeeding duration were collected from mothers. The highest school grade was recorded repeatedly between ages 6 and 12 years. We calculated age-for-grade based on whether a child was on, over, or under the official age for a grade. Generalised estimating equations and binary logistic regression estimated the effect of breastfeeding duration on being 2 years, 3 or more years, or any years over-age for grade in primary school, adjusting for socioeconomic status and maternal-child characteristics., Results: Most mothers breastfed for more than a year. Just over one-third breastfed for 18-23 months, and 30% breastfed for longer. By age eight, 42% of the children were two years over-age for their grade. Three or more years over-age for grade increased from 19% at age nine to 56% at age 12. Both adjusted and unadjusted estimates were consistent in showing reduced odds for children being 2 years, 3 or more years, or any years over-age for grade among children breastfed for 7-12, 13-17, 18-23, and > 23 months compared to those breastfed for 0-6 months. There was no evidence to support an overall association between breastfeeding duration and being over-age for grade. There was no evidence of association in the sex and age sub-group analyses., Conclusion: Although we found no association between breastfeeding duration and educational attainment, breastfeeding remains important for children's health and nutrition, and mothers should be encouraged and supported to breastfeed for the recommended duration.

This research investigated the relationship between cognitive performance and an individual's educational attainment as well as occupational mental demands among Mexican adults aged 50 or older. We hypothesized that cognitively demanding work boosts cognitive performance for older adults regardless of their education level. To test our hypothesis, we analyzed data on 12,939 individuals in the 2012 Mexican Health and Aging Study using a Generalized Linear Model with a Gaussian family and identity link function. We assessed cognitive demands of occupations with the National Information Network's descriptors, focusing on worker-oriented and job-oriented mental demands. We found that greater worker-oriented (β = 0.5; CI = 0.45, 0.55) and job-oriented (β = 0.49; CI = 0.45, 0.53) mental demands predicted better cognitive performance. Educational attainment correlated even more strongly with better cognitive performance (β = 0.9; CI = 0.87, 0.92). Both our models showed a statistically significant negative interaction between medium occupational mental demands and medium education level (job-oriented: β = -0.09; CI = -0.14, -0.05; worker-oriented: β = -0.07; CI = -0.12, -0.02). Other interaction terms were not significant. This study highlighted a significant effect of educational attainment on cognitive function, which is more pronounced than that of occupational mental demands. The association of higher occupational mental demands with higher cognitive function appeared to be largely independent of educational background. The similarity in cognitive scores using worker-oriented or job-oriented metrics suggests that both are useful for assessing occupational mental demands. Education and cognitive engagement at work are crucial for promoting cognitive health in aging populations., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

The experience of discrimination can have significant health implications, especially during a global pandemic. This study examines how lifetime discrimination, educational attainment (measured in years of education), and family support individually and interactively predict COVID-19 vaccine uptake. Low educational attainment may amplify the impact of discrimination due to increased vulnerability to misinformation. Conversely, family support can buffer the negative effects of discrimination on health behaviors by mitigating how stressors adversely influence health decisions. We utilized national data from the Midlife in the United States ( N  = 2004; aged 25-74). The results showed that although lifetime discrimination did not predict vaccine uptake, interaction analyses revealed that lifetime discrimination, in combination with higher educational attainment predicted lower vaccine uptake. In addition, family support moderated the relationship between lifetime discrimination and vaccine uptake, buffering its negative impact. These findings highlight the complex interplay of factors influencing COVID-19 vaccination decisions., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Education holds significant implications for individual health. This work aims to examine the relationship between educational attainment, lifestyle, self-rated health, and depressive symptoms among Chinese adults. We used China Family Panel Studies data from 2012 to 2020. Multiple linear regression models were used to explore the relationship between educational attainment and self-rated health and depressive symptoms, where multidimensional lifestyle (sleep time, exercise time, overtime time, leisure time, housework time, and protein intake) was the mediator variable of the above relationship, and the causal step method was used to test the mediating effect. Our findings show that educational attainment is associated with higher levels of self-rated health and lower levels of depressive symptoms. More importantly, educational attainment also indirectly affects individuals' self-rated health and depressive symptoms through lifestyle. These findings reveal health interventions to develop education further and improve its quality., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Xiong, Hu and Ning.)

The observation that the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease is reduced in individuals with high premorbid cognitive functioning, higher educational attainment, and occupational status has led to the 'cognitive reserve' hypothesis. This hypothesis suggests that individuals with greater cognitive reserve can tolerate a more significant burden of neuropathological changes before the onset of cognitive decline. The underpinnings of cognitive reserve remain poorly understood, although a shared genetic basis between measures of cognitive reserve and Alzheimer's disease has been suggested. Using the largest samples to date and novel statistical tools, we aimed to investigate shared genetic variants between Alzheimer's disease, and measures of cognitive reserve; cognition and educational attainment to identify molecular and neurobiological foundations. We applied the causal mixture model (MiXeR) to estimate the number of trait-influencing variants shared between Alzheimer's disease, cognition, and educational attainment, and condFDR/conjFDR to identify shared loci. To provide biological insights loci were functionally characterized. Subsequently, we constructed a Structural Equation Model (SEM) to determine if the polygenic foundation of cognition has a direct impact on Alzheimer's disease risk, or if its effect is mediated through established risk factors for the disease, using a case-control sample from the UK Biobank. Univariate MiXeR analysis (after excluding chromosome 19) revealed that Alzheimer's disease was substantially less polygenic (450 trait-influencing variants) compared to cognition (11,100 trait-influencing variants), and educational attainment (12,700 trait-influencing variants). Bivariate MiXeR analysis estimated that Alzheimer's disease shared approximately 70 % of trait-influencing variants with cognition, and approximately 40 % with educational attainment, with mixed effect directions. Using condFDR analysis, we identified 18 loci jointly associated with Alzheimer's disease and cognition and 6 loci jointly associated with Alzheimer's disease and educational attainment. Genes mapped to shared loci were associated with neurodevelopment, expressed in early life, and implicated the dendritic tree and phosphatidylinositol phosphate binding mechanisms. Spatiotemporal gene expression analysis of the identified genes showed that mapped genes were highly expressed during the mid-fetal period, further suggesting early neurodevelopmental stages as critical periods for establishing cognitive reserve which affect the risk of Alzheimer's disease in old age. Furthermore, our SEM analysis showed that genetic variants influencing cognition had a direct effect on the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, providing evidence in support of the neurodevelopmental hypothesis of the disease., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest Dr. Andreassen reported grants for unrestricted research funding from KG Jebsen Stiftelsen, the South East Norway Health Authority, the Research Council of Norway, the European Union, and the National Institutes of Health during the conduct of the study; personal fees from cortechs.ai and HealthLytix as a consultant outside the submitted work; personal fees from Lundbeck, Sunovion, and Janssen for speaker's honorarium outside the submitted work; and is working as a consultant at Østfold Hospital and is the local principal investigator for clinical trials sponsored by BI, COMPASS, MAPS, and Janssen. No other disclosures were reported., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

At a time when educational attainment in young adulthood forecasts long-term trajectories of economic mobility, better health, and stable partnership, there is more pressure on mothers to provide labor and support to advance their children's interests in the K-12 system. As a result, poor health among mothers when children are growing up may interfere with how far they progress educationally. Applying life course theory to the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health to investigate this possibility, we found that young adults were less likely to graduate from college when raised by mothers in poor health, especially when those mothers had a college degree themselves. Young people's school-related behaviors mediated this longitudinal association. These findings extend the literature on the connection between education and health into an intergenerational process, speaking to a pressing public health issue-rising morbidity among adults in midlife-and the reproduction of inequality within families.

Background: The objectives of this study were to (a) assess the associations between early behavioral problems and intergenerational income mobility (i.e., the degree to which income status is transmitted from one generation to the next), (b) verify whether these associations are moderated by child sex, and (c) explore indirect effects of early behavioral problems on income mobility via high school graduation., Methods: Data were drawn from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Kindergarten Children (n = 3,020; 49.17% girls). Participants were followed from age 6 to 37 years. Measures included parents' and teachers' ratings of behavioral problems at age 6 years as well as participants' (ages 30-35 years) and their parents' (when participants were aged 10-19 years) income data obtained from tax return records. Regression models were used to predict upward and downward mobility (i.e., increased or decreased income status from one generation to the next) from attention-deficit/hyperactivity problems, conduct/opposition problems, depression/anxiety problems, prosociality, and the quality of children's relationship with their caregiver. Two-way interaction effects between behavioral problems and child sex were examined and indirect effect models including high school graduation as a mediator of these associations were conducted., Results: Despite their higher educational attainment, females had lower incomes and experienced lower upward (but higher downward) income mobility than males. For both females and males, higher levels of attention-deficit/hyperactivity and conduct/opposition problems were associated with decreased odds of upward mobility, whereas higher levels of attention-deficit/hyperactivity were associated with increased odds of downward mobility. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity problems, conduct/opposition problems as well as low prosociality were associated with lower educational attainment (no high school diploma), which in turn was associated with increased odds of downward mobility., Conclusions: Results highlight the importance of providing intensive support to children with early behavioral problems as a means of improving educational attainment and intergenerational income mobility., (© 2024 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.)

Despite a large literature consistently showing a relationship between higher levels of education and lower levels of ethnic prejudice, some points of contention remain. First, it remains unclear whether education has a causal effect on attitudes, mainly due to a lack of longitudinal studies. Second, due to the majority of studies on prejudice being conducted in Europe and North America, we do not know to what extent the inverse relationship between education and prejudice is generalizable beyond the "global North." To answer these questions, I study attitudes toward immigrants in Chile in the years 2016-2022, using six waves of the Chilean Longitudinal Social Survey. Chile provides new variations in economic and cultural factors, with its stable albeit highly unequal economy, and increased immigration from culturally similar countries which shed light on possible scope conditions of the so-called liberalizing effect of education. I analyze whether attaining more education has an effect on reducing levels of perceived economic and cultural threat. The findings show that increases in education are associated with both lower levels of perceived economic and cultural threat, with education having a stronger effect on the latter., (© 2024 The Author(s). The British Journal of Sociology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of London School of Economics and Political Science.)

From the late nineteenth century until the end of the twentieth century, the Canadian government collaborated with Christian churches to operate a network of boarding schools for Indigenous children to culturally and economically assimilate them. These children were taken from their families and placed into residential schools, where they were to be assimilated into the Eurocentric culture of the dominant society. Using a unique restricted-access database that asked Indigenous respondents about their family history with residential schools, in addition to questions on socioeconomic outcomes, I study the intergenerational effects of these schools. Despite previous research showing that residential schools increased human capital accumulation among attendees, I find that residential schools are associated with lower educational attainment among subsequent generations. I present evidence consistent with the notion that both cultural detachment and a breakdown in family relationships contributed to a reversal of the standard relationship between parents' and children's human capital. Encouragingly, I find suggestive evidence that greater access to cultural centers might buffer the harmful legacy of this historical trauma., (Copyright © 2024 The Author.)

Objective: Determine how preventable causes of death contribute to the life expectancy gap between Mexico and Spain., Methods: We used a linear integral decomposition to analyze the impact of preventable mortality on life expectancy between ages 30-75 (temporary life expectancy) between Mexico and Spain in 2018. Additionally, we computed cause-deleted life tables to estimate potential gains in temporary life expectancy. Analyses were stratified by educational attainment, sex, and age., Results: Low-educated Mexicans showed the largest gains in temporary life expectancy from removing preventable deaths (3.4 years for males, 1.6 for females), partially explaining the gap with Spain. Removing these deaths would close the gap almost entirely due to a higher relative decrease for middle- and high-educated individuals., Discussion: While access to adequate healthcare is crucial for improving population health, appropriate non-medical public policies can significantly reduce mortality disparities between Mexico and Spain, especially for individuals from higher educational backgrounds., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Aim: To study the causal relationship between obesity-related anthropometric traits and myopia and the mediating role of educational attainment (EA)., Methods: Univariable Mendelian randomization (UVMR) was performed to evaluate the causal association between body mass index (BMI), height, waist-hip ratio (WHR, adjusted for BMI), and mean spherical equivalent (MSE). BMI was divided into fat and fat-free mass and included in multivariable Mendelian randomization (MVMR) to explore the roles of different BMI components in the causal relationship between BMI and MSE. A mediation analysis based on two-step Mendelian randomization (MR) was carried out. Specifically, UVMR was conducted to estimate the causal effect of BMI on EA. The direct effect of EA on MSE was estimated from MVMR. The mediation effect of EA in the BMI-EA-MSE model was calculated by the product of coefficients method. Expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL)-MR, reverse MR, and Linkage Disequilibrium Score Regression (LDSC) were performed to assess the robustness., Results: Genetically predicted higher BMI had a positive total effect on MSE ( β IVW=0.26 D, 95%CI=0.14 to 0.37 D, P <0.001), whereas there was no significant association between height, WHR, and MSE. Fat mass was found to play a significant role in the effect of body mass on MSE ( β IVW=0.50 D, 95%CI=0.21 to 0.78 D, P =0.001), but there was no significant association between fat-free mass and MSE. The causal effect of BMI on EA was -0.14 (95%CI=-0.16 to -0.11, P <0.001), and the direct effect of EA on MSE was -0.63 D (95%CI=-0.81 to -0.44 D, P <0.001). The mediating effect of EA in the BMI-EA-MSE model was 0.09 D (95%CI=0.06 to 0.12 D), with a mediation proportion of 33% (95%CI=22.1% to 44.6%). No reverse causal associations were detected except for BMI on EA. The results of eQTL-MR and LDSC were consistent with each MR analysis., Conclusion: Genetically predicted higher BMI decreases the degree of myopia with a 33% mediation proportion by EA, and fat mass provides a dominant protective role in body mass-myopia. As a supplement to previous observational studies, it provides strong evidence for the relationship between anthropometric traits and refractive errors and offers a theoretical basis for future measures to prevent and control myopia., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest: Lu Y, None; Zhang CC, None; Ma RT, None; Li YJ, None; Li WP, None; Hu DWJ, None; Zhou LH, None., (International Journal of Ophthalmology Press.)

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers with less formal education (eg, nursing assistants and home care aides) vs more formal education (eg, physicians and nurses) were more likely to experience economic insecurity, the real and/or perceived risk of financial losses. Given the unprecedented impact of COVID-19 on healthcare workers, we sought to describe economic insecurity among these workers during the pandemic. Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey from July 2021 to July 2023, we examined economic insecurity among healthcare workers by educational attainment. Higher proportions of healthcare workers with an associate degree or below reported difficulty paying usual expenses, food insufficiency, and being behind on rent/mortgage payments compared to healthcare workers with a bachelor's degree or higher. Accounting for other sociodemographic characteristics, higher educational attainment was associated with significantly lower odds of economic insecurity. Since the public health emergency has ended and temporary policies to support low-wage workers during the pandemic have sunsetted, targeted policies to promote economic security among financially vulnerable low-wage workers are critical to enable recruitment and retention of these essential healthcare workers., Competing Interests: Conflicts of interest Please see ICMJE form(s) for author conflicts of interest. These have been provided as supplementary materials., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Project HOPE - The People-To-People Health Foundation, Inc.)

Introduction We aimed to describe the relationship of educational attainment with the prevalence of six health outcomes (ever and current smoking, diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) in an older adult population, including whether education-health relationships differed by health outcome, by racial and ethnic (racial/ethnic) group, and by racial/ethnic group within the same level of education. Methods This cross-sectional study used 2015-2016 electronic health record data for 149,417 non-Hispanic White (White), 15,398 African-American or other Black (Black), 15,319 Hispanic or Latino (Latino), 10,133 Filipino, and 8810 Chinese Northern California health plan members aged 65-79 years whose preferred language was English. For each racial/ethnic group, sex-specific age-standardized prevalence of the six health outcomes was estimated for four levels of education (non-high school graduate, high school graduate, some college, college graduate). Age-adjusted prevalence ratios were used to compare the prevalence between adjacent levels of education and at lower versus college graduate levels within racial/ethnic groups, and the prevalence between White adults and adults in the other racial/ethnic groups, within each level of education and overall. Results The education-health relationship varied across racial/ethnic groups and health outcomes, with gradient relationships more consistently seen for White, Black, and Latino older adults than Filipino and Chinese older adults. Even when a gradient relationship was not observed, the prevalence at the college graduate level was usually significantly lower than the prevalence at the three lower levels of education. The prevalence of current smoking, diabetes, and hypertension was higher among Black than White adults at most levels of education. Controlling for education level minimally affected comparisons of overall prevalence of health outcomes between adults in the White and the other racial/ethnic groups, with the broadest impact seen for Latino-White comparisons. Conclusions The relationship of level of education and health outcomes differs across racial/ethnic groups and by health outcome. This should be taken into consideration when using education as a risk adjustment factor or predictor of health outcomes in multi-ethnic older adult populations., Competing Interests: Human subjects: Consent for treatment and open access publication was obtained or waived by all participants in this study. Kaiser Permanente Northern California Institutional Review Board issued approval Exempt. This study was reviewed and approved by the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Region Institutional Review Board, which waived requirements for obtaining informed consent and Privacy Rule Authorization for use and disclosure of protected health information. Animal subjects: All authors have confirmed that this study did not involve animal subjects or tissue. Conflicts of interest: In compliance with the ICMJE uniform disclosure form, all authors declare the following: Payment/services info: All authors have declared that no financial support was received from any organization for the submitted work. Financial relationships: All authors have declared that they have no financial relationships at present or within the previous three years with any organizations that might have an interest in the submitted work. Other relationships: All authors have declared that there are no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work., (Copyright © 2024, Gordon et al.)

Background: No consensus exists about the role of head circumference in identifying children at risk of suboptimal development. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between head circumference and intelligence, schooling, employment, and income. The review 1) summarizes the overall evidence and 2) restricts the evidence to a subset of articles that met minimum quality criteria., Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, PsycINFO, LILACS, CINAHL, WHO Institutional Repository for Information Sharing and UNICEF Innocenti were searched to identify published studies. Cohort, case-control or cross-sectional studies which evaluated the associations of interest in the general population, premature babies, babies with low birth weight or small for gestational age were included; head circumference must have been measured before the age of 20 years. Two reviewers independently performed study selection, data extraction and quality assessments., Results: Of 2521 records identified, 115 were included and 21 met the minimum quality criteria. Ninety studies investigated if early measures of head circumference predict later outcomes and 25 studies measured head circumference and the outcome at the same timepoint; 78 studies adjusted the head circumference for age and sex. We identified large heterogeneity and inconsistency in the effect measures and data reported across studies. Despite the relatively large number of included articles, more than 80% presented serious limitations such as lack of adjustment for confounding and severe selection bias. Considering the subset of articles which met the minimum quality criteria, 12 of 16 articles showed positive association between head circumference and intelligence in the general population. However, in premature babies, 2 of 3 articles showed no clear effect. Head circumference was positively associated with academic performance in all investigated samples (5 of 5 articles). No article which evaluated educational attainment and employment met the minimum quality criteria, but the association between head circumference and these outcomes seems to be positive., Conclusions: Larger head circumferences are positively associated with higher levels of intelligence and academic performance in the general population, but there is evidence of non-linearity in those associations. Identifying a group of children in higher risk for worse outcomes by a simple and inexpensive tool could provide an opportunity to mitigate these negative effects. Further research is needed for a deeper understanding of the whole distribution of head circumference and its effect in premature babies. Authors should consider the non-linearity of the association in the data analysis., Trial Registration: Association between head circumference and intelligence, educational attainment, employment, and income: A systematic review, CRD42021289998 ., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Whereas 16p11.2 BP4-5 copy-number variants (CNVs) represent one of the most pleiotropic etiologies of genomic syndromes in both clinical and population cohorts, the mechanisms leading to such pleiotropy remain understudied. Identifying 73 deletion and 89 duplication carrier individuals among unrelated White British UK Biobank participants, we performed a phenome-wide association study (PheWAS) between the region's copy number and 117 complex traits and diseases, mimicking four dosage models. Forty-six phenotypes (39%) were affected by 16p11.2 BP4-5 CNVs, with the deletion-only, mirror, U-shape, and duplication-only models being the best fit for 30, 10, 4, and 2 phenotypes, respectively, aligning with the stronger deleteriousness of the deletion. Upon individually adjusting CNV effects for either body mass index (BMI), height, or educational attainment (EA), we found that sixteen testable deletion-driven associations-primarily with cardiovascular and metabolic traits-were BMI dependent, with EA playing a more subtle role and no association depending on height. Bidirectional Mendelian randomization supported that 13 out of these 16 associations were secondary consequences of the CNV's impact on BMI. For the 23 traits that remained significantly associated upon individual adjustment for mediators, matched-control analyses found that 10 phenotypes, including musculoskeletal traits, liver enzymes, fluid intelligence, platelet count, and pneumonia and acute kidney injury risk, remained associated under strict Bonferroni correction, with 10 additional nominally significant associations. These results paint a complex picture of 16p11.2 BP4-5's pleiotropic pattern that involves direct effects on multiple physiological systems and indirect co-morbidities consequential to the CNV's impact on BMI and EA, acting through trait-specific dosage mechanisms., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests The authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: Little is known about the relationship between learning difficulties (LD) in adolescence and physical health in adulthood. This study investigates the gender-specific pathways through which LD is longitudinally associated with cardiometabolic risk in adulthood., Study Design: We used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 11,342). To assess cardiometabolic risk, 11 biomarkers related to cardiovascular functioning, glucose metabolism, lipid metabolism, and inflammation were utilized., Methods: We first estimated the association between LD in adolescence and cardiometabolic risk in adulthood. Then, we examined whether this association is mediated by educational attainment and body mass index (BMI). Finally, we employed a moderated mediation model to determine whether gender moderates these mediation patterns., Results: LD in adolescence was positively associated with cardiometabolic risk in adulthood (b = 0.165, p < 0.001). LD also predicted lower educational attainment (b = -0.724, p < 0.001) and higher BMI (b = 0.589, p < 0.05). Educational attainment and BMI explained 18 and 25 percent of the positive association between LD and cardiometabolic risk, respectively. A moderated mediation model revealed that indirect effects of LD on cardiometabolic risk via educational attainment and BMI were more pronounced among women than men., Conclusion: LD in adolescence is a significant predictor of cardiometabolic risk in adulthood. Interventions focusing on the academic and health behaviors of girls with LD may be effective in improving their adult physical health., (Copyright © 2024 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Graduating from secondary education for adolescents living in poverty is challenging. Strong entrepreneurial intention and student engagement among youth living in poverty often play a protective role in reducing school dropout and fostering school completion, which results in improved educational attainment. However, research on this topic is scarce. A total of 1135 adolescents took part in this cross-sectional study, 50.9% of which were females. On average, they were 16.4 years old. They were all upper secondary school students from ten public and private schools in Lebanon. They completed instruments measuring entrepreneurial intention and student engagement. This study explored the covariate associations between risk and promotive factors through four dimensions of entrepreneurial intention and two components of student engagement (cognitive and psychological engagement). It shows positive associations for entrepreneurial intention with both individual factors (age) and social factors (working mother and private school). Negative associations for student engagement were found in all (individual and social) factors with the exception of the father's job, which did not present any association. The findings provide insight for policymaking to empower schools to promote school completion and educational attainment among these youth by providing policy initiatives and school-based interventions that target entrepreneurial exposure and engagement strengthening, hence meeting young people's individual, family, and school community needs.

Background: Previous observational studies have suggested associations between high-level educational attainment (EA) and a lower risk of sarcopenia. However, the causality inferred from those studies was subjected to residual confounding and reverse causation. The protective effect of EA on sarcopenia may be mediated via changes in brain cortical structure. The aim of this study was to use a two-step Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to illustrate the causal relationship between EA, brain cortical structure, and sarcopenia., Methods: Instrumental variables at the genome-wide significance level were obtained from publicly available datasets, and inverse variance weighted as the primary method was used for MR analysis. We perform several sensitivity analyses, including Cochran Q test, MR-Egger intercept test, leave-one-out analyses, and MR Pleiotropy Residual Sum and Outlier to evaluate the reliability of the results., Results: EA was causally associated with increased appendicular lean mass ( β  = 0.25, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.19 to 0.31, p  = 2.25 × 10 -15 ), hand grip strength (left: β  = 0.042, 95% CI: 0.013 to 0.071, p  = 4.77 × 10 -3 and right: β  = 0.050, 95% CI: 0.022 to 0.079, p  = 5.17 × 10 -4 ), and usual walking pace (β = 0.20, 95% CI: 0.18 to 0.22, p  = 6.16 × 10 -83 ). In addition, EA was associated with increased brain cortical surface area ( β  = 4082.36, 95% CI: 2513.35 to 5681.38, p  = 3.40 × 10 -7 ) and cortical thickness (TH) ( β  = 0.014, 95% CI: 0.0045 to 0.023, p  = 3.45 × 10 -3 ). Regarding the causal effect of EA on usual walking pace, the mediatory effect of TH was 0.0069 and the proportion of mediation by TH was 3.43%., Conclusion: The study will have revealed the protective causal effect of EA on sarcopenia, which provides a reference for the prevention of sarcopenia at the public health level. We also will have found EA could affect the brain cortical structure, and the brain cortical structure could mediate the protective effect of EA against sarcopenia risk., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Zhang, Wang, Chen, Zhou and Su.)

Background: Educational attainment (EduA) is correlated with life outcomes, and EduA itself is influenced by both cognitive and non-cognitive factors. A recent study performed a 'genome-wide association study (GWAS) by subtraction,' subtracting genetic effects for cognitive performance from an educational attainment GWAS to create orthogonal 'cognitive' and 'non-cognitive' factors. These cognitive and non-cognitive factors showed associations with behavioral health outcomes in adults; however, whether these correlations are present during childhood is unclear., Methods: Using data from up to 5517 youth (ages 9-11) of European ancestry from the ongoing Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development SM Study, we examined associations between polygenic scores (PGS) for cognitive and non-cognitive factors and cognition, risk tolerance, decision-making & personality, substance initiation, psychopathology, and brain structure (e.g. volume, fractional anisotropy [FA]). Within-sibling analyses estimated whether observed genetic associations may be consistent with direct genetic effects., Results: Both PGSs were associated with greater cognition and lower impulsivity, drive, and severity of psychotic-like experiences. The cognitive PGS was also associated with greater risk tolerance, increased odds of choosing delayed reward, and decreased likelihood of ADHD and bipolar disorder; the non-cognitive PGS was associated with lack of perseverance and reward responsiveness. Cognitive PGS were more strongly associated with larger regional cortical volumes; non-cognitive PGS were more strongly associated with higher FA. All associations were characterized by small effects., Conclusions: While the small sizes of these associations suggest that they are not effective for prediction within individuals, cognitive and non-cognitive PGS show unique associations with phenotypes in childhood at the population level.

Most research on the strong relationship between education and cognitive aging has focused on years of schooling. Using data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study-a sample of White persons born in 1939-we explored whether greater curricular rigor in high school was also associated with better cognitive function in later life. We estimated multilevel structural equation models in data from 2,749 participants who attended 308 Wisconsin high schools, graduating in 1957. Independent of academic ability and performance and school-level financial and material resources, a more rigorous high school curriculum was associated with significantly better global cognitive functioning in 2020, when most participants were 81 years old. There was also a significant mediation via eventual degree attainment. The mediation was moderated such that men and participants from high socioeconomic status families benefited most from a rigorous curriculum. We discuss implications for modern educational policy.

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a risk factor for cognitive impairment (CI), and this risk is the highest in patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD). As a multifactorial disease, CI may be influenced by several potentially modifiable lifestyle and behavioral factors that may reduce or increase the risk of dementia. The aim of this study was to evaluate the associations between the known modifiable risk factors for dementia and the risk of CI in patients with ESKD treated with renal replacement therapy. The Charlson Comorbidity Index and the risk of CI in patients with ESKD were also assessed. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 225 consecutive patients with ESKD treated with different modalities of renal replacement therapy were assessed for cognitive decline using the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination (ACE III) test. Information was also collected on modifiable risk factors for dementia, medical history and demographics. Results: This study included 117 patients after kidney transplantation (KT) and 108 patients with ESKD undergoing peritoneal dialysis and hemodialysis. The prevalence of modifiable risk factors for dementia differed between the groups; KT patients were more likely to be physically active, residing in cities with populations of less than 500,000 inhabitants, and were less likely to suffer from depression. Furthermore, the KT group had a lower Charlson Comorbidity Index score, indicating less severe comorbidities, and a lower risk of CI (3.6 ± 1.67 vs. 5.43 ± 2.37; p = 0.001). In both the KT and dialysis groups, patients with CI were more likely to have a sedentary lifestyle (45% vs. 9%, p = 0.001 and 88% vs. 48%, p = 0.001, respectively), whereas lower educational attainment and depression had a significant negative impact on ACE III test results, but only in KT patients. Finally, cognitive function in dialysis patients was negatively affected by social isolation and living in urban areas. Conclusions: Modifiable risk factors for dementia, particularly a sedentary lifestyle, are associated with a higher risk of CI in patients treated with different renal replacement therapy modalities. As CI is an irreversible condition, it is important to identify lifestyle-related factors that may lead to dementia in order to improve or maintain cognitive function in patients with ESKD.

Background: Higher educational attainment is important for economic wellbeing and associated with better health and longevity. Previous research focused on intelligence, socioeconomic status and mental health or individual risk behaviours as predictors of educational attainment, but the role of multiple domains of adolescent risk behaviours is less clear. This study examined the association between multiple domains of risk behaviour in adolescence and educational attainment by 22 years-of-age., Methods: Young people (Generation 2, Gen2) and their parents (Generation 1, Gen1) participating in the Raine Study completed questionnaires at years 1, 5, 8, 10 (Gen1 only), 14, 17 (both) and 22 (Gen2 only). The Raine Study is an ongoing longitudinal study initiated in Perth, Western Australia, between 1989 and 1991. The 1,102 Gen2 participants who responded to questions about highest educational attainment were included in this study. The association between Gen2 self-reported risk behaviours (including age at commencement of drinking alcohol, smoking, sexual intercourse and drug use) and educational attainment (defined as self-reported years of completed high school: ≤10, 11, 12 or tertiary education (> 12)) at year 22, after adjusting for mother's age and combined parental education level, participant sex, and family income, educational performance and adolescent mental health, was explored using ordinal regression models and presented as odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI)., Results: Ordinal models suggested that never smoking or starting older than 18 compared with smoking before age 15 (OR 2.02, 95%CI: 1.28-2.14); first drinking alcohol between 15 and 17 years compared with younger than 15 (OR 1.52, 95%CI: 1.08-2.14); and, first sexual intercourse aged ≥ 18 years compared with under 15 (OR 1.67, 95%CI: 1.08-2.57) were associated with higher levels of educational attainment at 22-year follow-up. Additionally, lower ("better") behavioural scores increased the odds of higher levels of attainment., Conclusions: Absence of health risk behaviours at a younger age or later commencement was associated with higher educational attainment. Evidence-based interventions that address the societal influences underpinning risk behaviours in adolescents may support longer school retention., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Recent social and economic trends in the United States, including increasing economic inequality, women's growing educational advantage, and the rise of online dating, have ambiguous implications for patterns of educational homogamy. In this research note, we examine changes in educational assortative mating in the United States over the last eight decades (1940 to 2020) using the U.S. decennial censuses and the American Community Survey, extending and expanding earlier work by Schwartz and Mare. We find that the rise in educational homogamy noted by Schwartz and Mare has not continued. Increases in educational homogamy stalled around 1990 and began reversing in the 2000s. We find a growing tendency for marriages to cross educational boundaries, but a college degree remains the strongest dividing line to intermarriage. A key trend explaining this new pattern is women's increasing tendency to marry men with less education than themselves. If not for this trend, homogamy would have continued increasing until the early 2010s. We also show substantial heterogeneity by race, ethnicity, and nativity and among same- versus different-sex couples., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors.)

Background: Higher-level functional capacity (HLFC) is crucial for the independent living of older adults. While internet use positively impacts the health of older adults, its effect on HLFC and how this effect varies with educational attainment remains uncertain., Objective: This longitudinal study aimed to investigate whether internet use could mitigate the risk of HLFC decline and if this benefit extends to older adults with lower levels of education., Methods: The data were sourced from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES), encompassing 8050 community-dwelling adults aged 65 years and older from 2016 to 2019. The study focused on those who remained self-sufficient from 2016 to 2019, identifying participants with independent HLFC in 2016. The Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology Index of Competence defined HLFC operationally, consisting of 3 subscales, namely instrumental activities of daily living, intellectual activity, and social role. The primary variable was the frequency of internet use in 2016; participants who reported using the internet were classified as internet users, while those who answered "No" were identified as nonusers. The study compared the effects of internet use on HLFC decline across educational levels of ≤9 years, 10-12 years, and ≥13 years using Poisson regression analysis adjusted for robust SE to calculate the risk ratio (RR) and 95% CI for HLFC decline in 2019., Results: After adjusting for demographic and health condition risk factors, internet use was significantly linked to a decreased risk of HLFC decline in older adults over 3 years, including those with lower educational levels. Internet users with ≤9 years of educational attainment experienced a suppressed decline in the total score (RR 0.57, 95% CI 0.43-0.76; P<.001); instrumental activities of daily living (RR 0.58, 95% CI 0.38-0.91; P=.02), intellectual activity (RR 0.60, 95% CI 0.41-0.89; P=.01), and social role (RR 0.74, 95% CI 0.56-0.97; P=.03) compared with nonusers. Participants with 10-12 years of education showed suppression rates of 0.78 (95% CI 0.63-0.98; P=.03), 0.59 (95% CI 0.39-0.90; P=.01), 0.91 (95% CI 0.63-1.31; P=.61), and 0.82 (95% CI 0.68-1.00; P=.05), respectively, and those with ≥13 years displayed suppression rates of 0.65 (95% CI 0.51-0.85; P=.001), 0.55 (95% CI 0.36-0.83; P=.01), 0.64 (95% CI 0.37-1.10; P=.11), and 0.83 (95% CI 0.64-1.08; P=.17), respectively., Conclusions: These findings indicate that internet use supports the maintenance of HLFC independence in older adults with higher education and those with lower educational levels. Encouraging internet use among older adults with lower levels of education through future policies could help narrow functional health disparities associated with educational attainment., (©Atsuko Tajika, Atsushi Nakagomi, Yasuhiro Miyaguni, Chie Koga, Katsunori Kondo, Toshiyuki Ojima. Originally published in JMIR Aging (https://aging.jmir.org), 20.09.2024.)

Background: Previous research has shown that young people in the child protection system experience different levels of participation in decision-making on important issues. Nonetheless, researchers agree that children's participation in decision-making is likely to affect critical factors in their lives, such as educational and employment performance., Objectives: This study aimed to examine (1) to what extent the level of participation in decision-making is related to this group of young people's subsequent education and employment, and (2) how the relation varies between different dimensions of the measure of participation., Participants and Setting: Participants were a sample of 1477 young Danish individuals who received out-of-home care or preventive in-home care in 2019 and who answered a questionnaire regarding their participation in decision-making., Results: This study found a positive association between overall perceived participation and entering upper secondary education, even after controlling for individual-, parental- and case-specific background characteristics. However, no association with school-leaving exams or employment was identified. Unfolding the underlying dimensions of our measure of participation showed that the influence dimension drives a positive association with upper secondary education. At the same time, a better relationship with the caseworker is positively related to leaving the labor market., Conclusions: Young people's participation in decision-making in the child protection system does not relate as strongly to their subsequent performance as anticipated. However, the measure of participation is complex. The evidence suggests that the lack of association is partly driven by non-linear associations and the causal ambiguity of the dimension concerning the relationship with the caseworker., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Thyroid cancer and educational attainment have been related in observational studies. It is unclear if these correlations indicate causative relationships., Methods: Using large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) datasets, we conducted an univariable and multivariable Mendelian randomization (MR) study to assess a potential connection between educational attainment and thyroid cancer. The inverse-variance weighted (IVW) analysis method is used as our primary outcome. Additionally, we carry out several sensitivity analyses to evaluate the pleiotropy and robustness of the causal estimates., Results: Univariate MR study shows 4.2 years of additional education is associated with a 41.4% reduction in thyroid cancer risk (OR = 0.586; 95% CI: 0.378-0.909; P = 0.017). Further multivariable MR analysis revealed that body mass index (BMI) acted as a partial mediating factor in the protective impact of higher educational attainment against thyroid cancer., Conclusion: This MR study provided genetic evidence that longer education attainment is related to a lower risk of thyroid cancer. Strategies of expanding education may reduce the burden of thyroid cancer in the world., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

We present the first comprehensive set of estimates of variation in intergenerational social mobility across regions of Great Britain using data from the UK Labour Force Survey. Unlike the Social Mobility Index produced by the Social Mobility Commission, we focus directly on variation in measures of intergenerational social class mobility between the regions in which individuals were brought up. We define regions using the NUTS classification and we consider three levels, from 11 large NUTS1 regions, to 168 NUTS3 regions, across England, Wales, and Scotland. We investigate whether it is possible to form an index of social mobility from these measures and we address a neglected question: how much does the region in which someone was raised matter in comparison with the social class in which they were raised?, (© 2024 The Authors. The British Journal of Sociology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of London School of Economics and Political Science.)

Importance: Observational studies have demonstrated consistent protective effects of higher educational attainment (EA) on the risk of suffering mental health conditions (MHC). Determining whether these beneficial effects are causal is challenging given the potential role of dynastic effects and demographic factors (assortative mating and population structure) in this association., Objective: To evaluate to what extent the relationship between EA and various MHC is independent from dynastic effects and demographic factors., Design: Within-sibship Mendelian randomization (MR) study., Setting: One-sample MR analyses included participants' data from the Trøndelag Health Study (HUNT, Norway) and UK Biobank (United Kingdom). For two-sample MR analyses we used summary statistics from publicly available genome-wide-association-studies., Participants: 61 880 siblings (27 507 sibships)., Exposure: Years of education., Main Outcomes: Scores for symptoms of anxiety, depression and neuroticism using the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS), the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, as well as self-reported consumption of psychotropic medication., Results: One standard deviation (SD) unit increase in years of education was associated with a lower symptom score of anxiety (-0.20 SD [95%CI: -0.26, -0.14]), depression (-0.11 SD [-0.43, 0.22]), neuroticism (-0.30 SD [-0.53, -0.06]), and lower odds of psychotropic medication consumption (OR: 0.60 [0.52, 0.69]). Estimates from the within-sibship MR analyses showed some attenuation, which however were suggestive of a causal association (anxiety: -0.17 SD [-0.33, -0.00]; depression: -0.18 SD [-1.26, 0.89]; neuroticism: -0.29 SD [-0.43, -0.15]); psychotropic medication consumption: OR, 0.52 [0.34, 0.82])., Conclusions and Relevance: Associations between EA and MHC in adulthood, although to some extend explained by dynastic effects and demographic factors, overall remain robust, indicative of a causal effect. However, larger studies are warranted to improve statistical power and further validate our conclusions., Competing Interests: ØEN reports having received funding from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology for a review assignment. GDS reports a Scientific Advisory Board Membership for Relation Therapeutics and Insitro. MFVV, LB, PRJ, MT, NMD and BMB declare no conflict of interest to disclose.

Background: Educational attainment in children with congenital heart disease (CHD) within the UK has not been reported, despite the possibility of school absences and disease-specific factors creating educational barriers., Methods and Results: Children were prospectively recruited to the Born in Bradford birth cohort between March 2007 and December 2010. Diagnoses of CHD were identified through linkage to the congenital anomaly register and independently verified by clinicians. Multivariable regression accounted for relevant confounders. Our primary outcome was the odds of 'below expected' attainment in maths, reading, and writing at ages 4-11 years.Educational records of 139 children with non-genetic CHD were compared with 11 188 age-matched children with no major congenital anomaly. Children with CHD had significantly higher odds of 'below expected' attainment in maths at age 4-5 years [odds ratio (OR) 1.64, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.07-2.52], age 6-7 (OR 2.03, 95% CI 1.32-3.12), and age 10-11 (OR 2.28, 95% CI 1.01-5.14). Odds worsened with age, with similar results for reading and writing. The odds of receiving special educational needs support reduced with age for children with CHD relative to controls [age 4-5: OR 4.84 (2.06-11.40); age 6-7: OR 3.65 (2.41-5.53); age 10-11: OR 2.73 (1.84-4.06)]. Attainment was similar for children with and without exposure to cardio-pulmonary bypass. Lower attainment was strongly associated with the number of pre-school hospital admissions., Conclusion: Children with CHD have lower educational attainment compared with their peers. Deficits are evident from school entry and increase throughout primary school., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology.)

Background: ADHD and anxiety disorders often co-occur, sharing symptoms and dysfunctions, yet the underlying mechanisms remain elusive., Methods: To explore the shared and distinct genetic variations between ADHD and anxiety disorders, we applied Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to ADHD, anxiety disorders, and three socioeconomic factors: income, educational attainment (EA), and intelligence. MR analysis utilized genome-wide association study summary datasets (anxiety disorder: 7,016 cases and 14,745 controls; ADHD: 38,691 cases and 275,986 controls; EA: 766,345 participants; intelligence: 146,808 participants; household income: 392,422 participants), with inverse-variance weighting as the primary method., Results: Our MR analysis revealed no discernible genetic-level causal effect between ADHD and anxiety disorders (p > 0.77). Additionally, the independent variables for ADHD (25 SNPs) and anxiety disorders (18 SNPs) did not overlap, highlighting the genetic distinction between the two conditions. Higher income (p < 0.002) and EA (p < 0.005) were found to serve as protective factors for both ADHD and anxiety disorders. Genetic predisposition to higher income (86 SNPs) and EA (457 SNPs) were identified as a potential common protective factors for both conditions. Lastly, genetic predisposition to higher intelligence was found to potentially guard against ADHD (p < 0.001) but not against anxiety disorders (p > 0.55)., Conclusion: Our findings indicate that the shared symptoms observed between ADHD and anxiety disorders are more likely influenced by genetic predispositions related to socioeconomic factors rather than by the genetic predispositions specific to the disorders themselves., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Deng, Ren, Wu, Jie and Gu.)

We tested if cognitive and brain reserve and maintenance explain individual differences in episodic memory and other cognitive domains from late middle to early older adulthood. We used The Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging data (n=1604 men) with episodic memory measured at mean ages of 56, 62 and 68 years, and magnetic resonance imaging data for a subsample of participants (n=321). Cognitive reserve -young adult general cognitive ability at a mean age of 20 years and, to a lesser degree, educational attainment- was positively related to episodic memory performance at each assessment, but not to memory change. We found no evidence for the associations of brain reserve or brain maintenance on memory change. Results were highly similar when looking at processing speed, executive function and verbal fluency. In conclusion, higher young adult cognitive reserve was related to better episodic memory in midlife and older adulthood, but it did not confer better cognitive maintenance with respect to memory. This supports the importance of early cognitive development in dementia prevention., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors have no actual or potential conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Educational attainment (EA) as a stable indicator of socioeconomic status has been confirmed to affect intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), but the mechanism relating EA and ICH is still unknown., Aim: To explore the causal relationship between EA and ICH through a bidirectional and two-step Mendelian randomization (MR) study., Methods: Using summary-level Genome-wide Association Study using GWAS data FROM CASES AND CONTROLS of European ancestry, we performed bidirectional and two-step MR analyses to explore the causal relationship between educational attainment and ICH to understand the mediating influence of risk factors in this process. We also carried out subgroup analysis according to the different sites (deep and lobar) of ICH. A set of sensitivity analyses were performed to test valid MR assumptions., Results: Bidirectional MR analysis consistently demonstrated a unidirectional causal effect, revealing that higher EA had a protective influence on ICH. Each additional 1-standard deviation (SD) increase in genetically predicted years of schooling was associated with a reduced risk of all ICH (inverse variance weighted (IVW) OR: 0.381 [95 %CI: 0.264-0.549]), deep ICH (OR: 0.334 [95 %CI: 0.216-0.517]), and lobar ICH (OR: 0.422 [95 %CI: 0.261-0.682]). The mediating effect of EA on all ICH was mediated via systolic blood pressure (SBP) (6.93 % [1.20-13.45 %]) and body mass index (BMI) (17.87 % [3.92-34.64 %]), and the mediating effect of EA on deep ICH was also mediated via SBP (7.85 % [1.55-15.07 %]) and BMI (18.63 % [4.02-36.26 %])., Conclusion: This study provides robust genetic evidence for supporting the protective effect of EA on ICH risk, with further evidence that the effect of EA on deep ICH is partially mediated through hypertension and obesity. Further validation is needed to ascertain whether these findings are applicable to other racial or general population groups., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Background: Although limited in predictive accuracy, polygenic scores (PGS) for educational outcomes are currently available to the public via direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies. Further, there is a growing movement to apply PGS in educational settings via 'precision education.' Prior scholarship highlights the potentially negative impacts of such applications, as disappointing results may give rise a "polygenic Pygmalion effect." In this paper two studies were conducted to identify factors that may mitigate or exacerbate negative impacts of PGS., Methods: Two studies were conducted. In each, 1188 students were randomized to one of four conditions: Low-percentile polygenic score for educational attainment (EA-PGS), Low EA-PGS + Mitigating information, Low EA-PGS + Exacerbating information, or Control. Regression analyses were used to examine differences between conditions., Results: In Study 1, participants randomized to Control reported significantly higher on the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), Competence Scale (CS), Academic Efficacy Scale (AES) and Educational Potential Scale (EPS). CS was significantly higher in the Low EA-PGS + Mitigating information condition. CS and AES were significantly lower in the Low EA-PGS + Exacerbating information condition compared to the Low EA-PGS + Mitigating information condition. In Study 2, participants randomized to Control reported significantly higher CS and AES. Pairwise comparisons did not show significant differences in CS and AES. Follow-up pairwise comparisons using Tukey P-value correction did not find significant associations between non-control conditions., Conclusion: These studies replicated the polygenic Pygmalion effect yet were insufficiently powered to detect significant effects of mitigating contextual information. Regardless of contextual information, disappointing EA-PGS results were significantly associated with lower assessments of self-esteem, competence, academic efficacy, and educational potential., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest This manuscript is comprised of original material that is not under review elsewhere, and the subject on which the research is based has been subject to appropriate ethical review. The authors declare there are no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Social determinants of health affect health behaviors and outcomes. Youth experiencing homelessness suffer significant deprivation of resources such as inadequate housing, reduced education, poor health care, and decreased economic stability. Inner resources, such as psychological capital, may also be related to health behaviors and health outcomes., Objective: In this study, we sought to describe and explore associations among selected determinants of health and self-reported scores on indicators of psychological capital among youth experiencing homelessness., Methods: This cross-sectional secondary analysis was conducted with a randomized subsample of 148 youth. We calculated chi-square frequencies to describe the data, classical item analyses to evaluate responses, and correlation tests to examine significance of associations., Results: Youth in this sample demonstrated that they possess inner resources associated with determinants of health. Education, health care, and social support were significantly associated with attributes of psychological capital (hope, efficacy, resilience, optimism). Sexual minority groups had high representation in this subsample (25.7%), indicating a need for more study and equitable services for this population., Conclusion: More research should be conducted to better understand the associations between determinants of health, psychological capital, and health behaviors among disadvantaged youth to advance health equity initiatives., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Studies concerning twins with a sociological focus are scarce in Hungary as well as international research, although the number of twin births has increased dramatically worldwide. The raising and education of twins are tasks demanding special attention from both the family and institutions. In our study we examine these aspects, looking back from adulthood, using the narrow scope of the available data from research based on the 'Hungarostudy 2021' database ( N total: 7000; n twins: 106). Our results, corresponding to the hypotheses of educational sociology, demonstrate how the relationships between family size and school career and increasing number of siblings reduces the chances of high educational attainment. A regression analysis confirmed that both the number of siblings and a later position in the birth order reduces the chance of obtaining a higher education. For the second child in a family, the chance of earning a university degree is reduced to to 0.743. The role of a large family concerning higher education showed a stronger relationship in the case of twins compared to nontwins. For twins, the sibling pattern has a decisive effect in educational attainment. Twins themselves have a 1.449 times higher chance of obtaining a higher education compared to nontwins ( p = 0.101), and fraternal twins have half (0.517) the chance of obtaining a higher education compared to identical twins; but both results are not significant ( p = 0.156).

Background: Education is essential for socioeconomic security and long-term mental health; however, mental disorders are often detrimental to the educational trajectory. Genetic correlations between mental disorders and educational attainment do not always align with corresponding phenotypic associations, implying heterogeneity in the genetic overlap., Methods: We unraveled this heterogeneity by investigating associations between polygenic risk scores for 6 mental disorders and fine-grained school outcomes: school grades in language and mathematics in ninth grade and high school, as well as educational attainment by age 25, using nationwide-representative data from established cohorts (N = 79,489)., Results: High polygenic liability of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder was associated with lower grades in language and mathematics, whereas high polygenic risk of anorexia nervosa or bipolar disorder was associated with higher grades in language and mathematics. Associations between polygenic risk and school grades were mixed for schizophrenia and major depressive disorder and neutral for autism spectrum disorder., Conclusions: Polygenic risk scores for mental disorders are differentially associated with language and mathematics school grades., (Copyright © 2023 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Although the regular exercise population is a key metric for gaging the success of China's fitness-for-all activities, effective policy approaches to increase mass sports participation remain unclear. Previous research suggests that GDP, educational attainment, sports resources, and meteorological conditions could influence regular exercise participation. Therefore, this study first analyzed the macro-level correlates influencing China's regular exercise population., Methods: We utilize ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and geographical weighted regression (GWR) to theorize the relationship. The analysis encompasses data from the 31 administrative regions of Mainland China, as reported at the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period. The log-log model enables us to quantify the marginal effect (elasticity) of the explanatory variables., Results: The OLS regression showed that regional GDP and the proportion of the population with a university education were significant predictors. In the global model, the marginal effects of regional GDP and university education were 0.048 and 0.173, respectively. Furthermore, the GWR revealed a distinct geographic pattern that corresponds to the classic Hu Line., Conclusion: While regional GDP was also a significant correlate in our model, the elasticity demonstrates that university education had an asymmetric effect on China's regular exercise population. Therefore, this paper sheds light on a policy priority for the upcoming 15th Five-Year Plan, emphasizing the strategic importance of expanding university education to enhance mass sports participation. In turn, a better-educated populace may yield significant secondary effects on public health and contribute to the high-quality development of the Chinese path to modernization., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Agudamu, Bu and Zhang.)

Introduction: In individuals with high educational levels, moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) is often elevated, yet the causal direction and the role of cognitive performance in this association remain ambiguous. Herein, Mendel randomization (MR) was employed to measure the causal relationship between education, cognitive performance, and moderate to vigorous physical activity. The purpose of this study was to analyze the causal effects of educational attainment on moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) levels and to explore potential mediating factors., Methods: Two-sample univariate MR analysis was conducted to assess the overall effect of education on moderate to severe physical activity. Besides, a two-step MR analysis was carried out to evaluate the mediating effect of cognitive performance on the impact of education on moderate to severe physical activity. Individuals included were exclusively of European ancestry, with data gathered from extensive genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on education ( n  = 470,941), cognitive performance ( n  = 257,841), and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) ( n  = 377,234). Educational attainment was measured by college graduation status. Cognitive performance encompasses not only psycho-motor speed, memory, and abstract reasoning abilities but also knowledge and skills acquired in professional domains. MVPA is defined as any physical activity that produces a metabolic equivalent (MET) of ≥3.0., Results: The positive two-sample MR analysis showed that education level had a significant protective effect on MVPA deficiency (β = -0.276, 95% CI = -0.354 to -0.199, p  = 2.866 × 10 -12 ). However, the reverse two-sample MR analysis showed that MVPA had no significant causal relationship with education level ( p  = 0.165). Subsequently, the two-step MR analysis indicated that the potential causal protective effect of education on the risk of MVPA deficiency was mostly mediated by cognitive performance (mediating effect β = -0.235, 95% CI = -0.434 to -0.036, and the intermediary ratio was 85.061%)., Discussion: Cognitive performance holds considerable significance in the relationship between education level and MVPA. Consequently, the intervention of cognitive performance may greatly improve the risk of physical inactivity caused by education, thereby promoting individual health., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Qi and Jinmin.)

Partners resemble each other on many traits, such as health and education. The traits are usually studied one by one in data from established couples and with potential participation bias. We studied all Norwegian parents who had their first child between 2016 and 2020 (N=187,926) and the siblings of these parents. We analysed grade point averages at age 16 (GPA), educational attainment (EA), and medical records with diagnostic data on 10 mental and 10 somatic health conditions measured 10 to 5 years before childbirth. We found stronger partner similarity in mental (median r=0.14) than in somatic health conditions (median r=0.04), with ubiquitous cross-trait correlations for mental health conditions (median r=0.13). GPA correlated 0.43 and EA 0.47 between partners. High GPA or EA was associated with better mental (median r=-0.16) and somatic (median r=-0.08) health in partners. Elevated correlations for mental health (median r=0.25) in established couples indicated convergence. Analyses of siblings and in-laws revealed deviations from direct assortment, suggesting instead indirect assortment based on related traits. Adjusting for GPA and EA reduced partner correlations in health with 30-40%. This has implications for the distribution of risk factors among children, for genetic studies, and for studies of intergenerational transmission.