In Russia, Men with University Educations Live 8.5 Years Longer than Men without and Women with Degrees live 5.2 Years Longer, ‘To Be Exact’ Portal Reports

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Feb. 17 – A university education leads to lifestyle choices that have a major impact on life expectancies in Russia, To Be Exact reports. Russian men aged 30 to 54 with such educational achievement live an average of 8.5 years than do those without, and women with degrees live on average 5.2 years longer than their counterparts without.
    It is not just the higher incomes that such people almost inevitably have but rather the lifestyle choices they choose to make including smoking and drinking less than their counterparts without such schooling (tochno.st/materials/rossiiane-30-54-let-s-vyssim-obrazovaniem-umiraiut-v-tri-raza-reze-svoix-rovesnikov).
Almost half of Russian men without university degrees, for example, smoke daily while only 23 percent of those with such degrees do; and among Russian women the corresponding figures are 15 percent and seven percent. A similar pattern holds for both genders with regard to excessive alcohol consumption.
But over the last decade, the differences between those with hgierh education and those with less have decreased as a result of rising levels of smoking and drinking among the more educated and declining levels of both among those who do not have university educations, To Be Exact reports.  
The portal suggests that this may reflect the growth in the share of Russians with higher educations and thus the inclusion in this category of people from lower-status families relative to those who come from families with parents who had higher educations and who made the better health choices their offspring continue.