Department of Sociology, Syracuse University, United States.
Department of Sociology, Syracuse University, United States.
Soc Sci Med. 2018 Feb;198:130-138. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.01.005. Epub 2018 Jan 6.
Studies on how education shapes adult health have largely conceptualized education as the quantity of schooling attained, coined the "vertical dimension" of education. While this dimension is important, heterogeneity within levels of education (the "horizontal dimension") may also shape health. Using data from the 2010-2014 American Community Survey on adults aged 45-64 with a Bachelor's degree (N = 667,362), we investigate the association between a key indicator of adult health (physical functioning) and an understudied horizontal dimension of education (college major). We find that physical functioning in midlife varies significantly by college major. For instance, the odds of poor functioning for men who majored in Psychology/Social Work were 1.9 (95% CI: 1.7, 2.1) times greater than for men who majored in Business. However, all college graduates, regardless of major, report better functioning than non-graduates. We also find that inequalities in midlife functioning across majors largely reflect differences in human capital skills and financial returns in the labor market. Taken together our findings suggest that college major is an important component of health stratification and should be integrated into the literature on health inequalities.
关于教育如何塑造成年人健康的研究，在很大程度上将教育概念化为所获得的受教育年限，即“教育的垂直维度”。虽然这个维度很重要，但教育程度内的异质性（“教育的水平维度”）也可能影响健康。本研究使用了 2010-2014 年美国社区调查（针对 45-64 岁成年人）的数据，调查了一个重要的成年人健康指标（身体机能）与一个研究较少的教育水平维度（大学专业）之间的关联。我们发现，成年人的身体机能在中年时因大学专业而有显著差异。例如，主修心理学/社会工作的男性身体机能不良的几率比主修商业的男性高 1.9 倍（95%CI：1.7，2.1）。然而，所有大学毕业生，无论专业如何，报告的身体机能都比非毕业生好。我们还发现，不同专业之间的中年身体机能不平等，在很大程度上反映了劳动力市场中人力资本技能和金融回报的差异。总的来说，我们的研究结果表明，大学专业是健康分层的一个重要组成部分，应该纳入健康不平等的文献中。
