The Cancer Gap
This is from Merrill Goozner at his blog:
A new study from the American Cancer Society shows that people with only a high school education are nearly three times more likely to die from cancer than people with college and advanced degrees.
He also quotes from an Associated Press story:
For all types of cancer among men, there were about 56 deaths per 100,000 for those with at least 16 years of education, compared with 148 deaths per 100,000 for those with no more than 12 years of school. For women, the rate was 59 per 100,000 for the most educated and 119 per 100,000 for the least educated. People with a high-school education or less died from lung cancer at a rate four to five times higher than those with at least four years of college education. More than a third of premature cancer deaths could have been avoided if everyone had a college degree, cancer-society officials estimated.
See our previous post on the life expectancy gap.
There is a large literature showing that wealthier is healthier. It appears that better educated is healthier as well.
If I go back to college, would it lower my chances of getting cancer? If women have gender reassignment surgery, would it lower theirs?
This gap could be partly due to health literacy, such as knowledge of healthy behaviors or knowledge of symptoms that should be checked out. Less educated people not seek care as soon once symptoms appear. In addition, poor lifestyle choices might cause greater incidence of cancer among subgroups. For instance, smoking is more prevalent among people with lower levels of education. As I said in an earlier post on inequities, there are also theories that good health is the result of good genetics, which may also boost intelligence.
In short, smoking, substance abuse, turbulent family arrangements, and impulse control are all correlated, either positively or negatively, with education, income and health. What a surprise!
The fact that these articles are all of a sudden being highlighted suggests yet another campaign to defend government run care by implying that lower income people have poorer health in a market driven system and only government provision of care can correct that.
Otherwise, these articles would honestly discuss the known relationships between health, income, and behavior.
“More than a third of premature cancer deaths could have been avoided if everyone had a college degree, cancer-society officials estimated.”
Definitely in the running for most asinine statement of the month. In addition to the drive for government run care, the story also seems to conincide with the government’s push to expand college enrollments beyond their already bloated levels. It is as if the college dimploma itself is some sort of talisman that increases health and wealth without any regard for underlying characteristics, preferences and behaviors of individuals.