IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/oec/eduaab/165-en.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Association between literacy and self-rated poor health in 33 high-and upper-middle-income countries

Author

Listed:
  • Sujay Kakarmath

    (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health)

  • Vanessa Denis

    (OECD)

  • Marta Encinas-Martín

    (OECD)

  • Francesca Borgonovi

    (OECD)

  • S. V. Subramanian

    (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health)

Abstract

We assess the relationship between general literacy skills and health status by analysing data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), an international survey of about 250 000 adults aged 16-65 years conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) from 2011-15 in 33 countries/national sub-regions. Across countries, there seems to be a strong and consistent association between general literacy proficiency and self-rated poor health, independent of prior socio-economic status and income. General literacy proficiency also appears to be a mediator of the association between self-education and self-rated poor health. While the literacy-health association is robust over time, it varies in magnitude across countries. It is strongest for those with a tertiary or higher degree and does not appear to exist among young adults (ages 25 to 34 years). Future studies are required to understand the contextual factors that modify the general literacy proficiency-health association.

Suggested Citation

  • Sujay Kakarmath & Vanessa Denis & Marta Encinas-Martín & Francesca Borgonovi & S. V. Subramanian, 2018. "Association between literacy and self-rated poor health in 33 high-and upper-middle-income countries," OECD Education Working Papers 165, OECD Publishing.
    • Handle: RePEc:oec:eduaab:165-en
    DOI: 10.1787/7aaeac27-en
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1787/7aaeac27-en
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1787/7aaeac27-en?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. van Doorslaer, Eddy & Gerdtham, Ulf-G., 2003. "Does inequality in self-assessed health predict inequality in survival by income? Evidence from Swedish data," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 57(9), pages 1621-1629, November.
    2. Franks, Peter & Gold, Marthe R. & Fiscella, Kevin, 2003. "Sociodemographics, self-rated health, and mortality in the US," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(12), pages 2505-2514, June.
    3. David M. Cutler & Adriana Lleras-Muney, 2006. "Education and Health: Evaluating Theories and Evidence," NBER Working Papers 12352, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Wolf, Michael S. & Feinglass, Joseph & Thompson, Jason & Baker, David W., 2010. "In search of 'low health literacy': Threshold vs. gradient effect of literacy on health status and mortality," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(9), pages 1335-1341, May.
    5. Gabriella Conti & James Heckman & Sergio Urzua, 2010. "The Education-Health Gradient," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(2), pages 234-238, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jacobs, Babs & van der Velden, Rolf, 2021. "Exploring the uncharted waters of educational mobility: The role of key skills," Research Memorandum 016, Maastricht University, Graduate School of Business and Economics (GSBE).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Aysit Tansel & Halil Ibrahim Keskin, 2017. "Education Effects on Days Hospitalized and Days out of Work by Gender: Evidence from Turkey," Koç University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum Working Papers 1721, Koc University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum.
    2. Strulik, Holger, 2018. "The return to education in terms of wealth and health," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 12(C), pages 1-14.
    3. Ji, Sisi & Zhu, Zheyi, 2022. "Does higher education matter for health?," Cardiff Economics Working Papers E2022/4, Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Economics Section.
    4. Ronchetti, Jérôme & Terriau, Anthony, 2021. "Help me quit smoking but don't make me sick! The controversial effects of electronic cigarettes on tobacco smokers," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 274(C).
    5. Giorgio Brunello & Margherita Fort & Nicole Schneeweis & Rudolf Winter‐Ebmer, 2016. "The Causal Effect of Education on Health: What is the Role of Health Behaviors?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(3), pages 314-336, March.
    6. Petter Lundborg & Anton Nilsson & Dan-Olof Rooth, 2016. "The health-schooling relationship: evidence from Swedish twins," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(4), pages 1191-1215, October.
    7. Albertini, Julien & Fairise, Xavier & Terriau, Anthony, 2021. "Health, wealth, and informality over the life cycle," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    8. Bedük, Selçuk, 2018. "Identifying people in poverty: a multidimensional deprivation measure for the EU," SocArXiv 7prxq, Center for Open Science.
    9. Borgonovi, Francesca, 2010. "A life-cycle approach to the analysis of the relationship between social capital and health in Britain," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(11), pages 1927-1934, December.
    10. Eide, Eric R. & Showalter, Mark H., 2011. "Estimating the relation between health and education: What do we know and what do we need to know?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 778-791, October.
    11. Ana María Iregui-Bohórquez & Ligia Alba Melo-Becerra & María Teresa Ramírez-Giraldo, 2015. "Risky Health Behaviors: Evidence for an Emerging Economy," Borradores de Economia 13040, Banco de la Republica.
    12. Carrieri, Vincenzo & Principe, Francesco, 2022. "WHO and for how long? An empirical analysis of the consumers’ response to red meat warning," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    13. Chen, Qihui & Huang, Juerong & Pei, Chunchen, 2024. "A neglected health burden of shadow education?—Effects of private supplementary tutoring on middle school students’ vision in China," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    14. Rong Hai, 2022. "The Causal Effects of Youth Cigarette Addiction and Education," Working Papers wp2022-01, University of Miami, Department of Economics.
    15. Aysit Tansel & Halil Ibrahim Keskin, 2017. "Education Effects on Days Hospitalized and Days out of Work by Gender: Evidence from Turkey," Koç University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum Working Papers 1721, Koc University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum.
    16. Strulik, Holger, 2011. "Health and Education: Understanding the Gradient," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-487, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    17. Zhuang Hao & Benjamin W. Cowan, 2017. "The Effects of Graduation Requirements on Risky Health Behaviors of High School Students," NBER Working Papers 23803, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Ahsan, Md Nazmul & Maharaj, Riddhi, 2018. "Parental human capital and child health at birth in India," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 130-149.
    19. Hania Wu & Tony Tam, 2015. "Economic Development and Socioeconomic Inequality of Well-Being: A Cross-Sectional Time-Series Analysis of Urban China, 2003–2011," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 124(2), pages 401-425, November.
    20. Prus, Steven G., 2011. "Comparing social determinants of self-rated health across the United States and Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 50-59, July.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oec:eduaab:165-en. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deoecfr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.