State School Policies as Predictors of Physical and Mental Health: A Natural Experiment in the REGARDS Cohort.

ABSTRACT: We used differences in state school policies as natural experiments to evaluate the joint influence of educational quantity and quality on late-life physical and mental health. Using US Census microsample data, historical measures of state compulsory schooling and school quality (term length, student-teacher ratio, and attendance rates) were combined via regression modeling on a scale corresponding to years of education (policy-predicted years of education (PPYEd)). PPYEd values were linked to individual-level records for 8,920 black and 14,605 white participants aged ≥45 years in the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke study (2003-2007). Linear and quantile regression models estimated the association between PPYEd and Physical Component Summary (PCS) and Mental Compone

SUBMITTER: Brenowitz WD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7306678 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature