Why education matters for healthy aging and longevity

Aging is not equal for everyone. Some people stay healthier for longer, while others decline faster. A team from USC’s Leonard Davis School of Gerontology has uncovered one reason why: education.

Their study shows that Americans with less schooling are aging more quickly than those with college degrees. And the gap between the two groups has almost doubled in just three decades.

Biological age is different from years

Counting birthdays only tells us how much time has gone by, but it doesn’t reveal how healthy someone truly is. Biological age fills that gap by looking inside the body.

It measures how organs work, how resilient systems remain, and how much stress or damage has built up over time. Doctors and researchers use indicators like blood pressure, kidney function, cholesterol, inflammation, and other markers to estimate it.

This is why two people who are both 65 can look very different biologically. One may show the profile of a 55-year-old with strong organs and low disease risk, while another may resemble someone 75, with higher vulnerability to illness and disability.

Unlike the number of years that a person has lived, biological age tells us how well or poorly a body is actually aging.

“Biological age gives us a clearer picture of health than chronological age,” said USC University Professor Eileen Crimmins, the study’s senior author. “It helps us understand who is likely to stay healthy longer and who may be at higher risk for disease and disability.”

Education gap in aging grows

The researchers studied adults aged 50 to 79 across two time spans: the late 1980s and early 1990s, and then 2015 through 2018. They found improvement in everyone. But the well-educated gained the most ground.

In the early years, the biological age difference between those without a high school diploma and college graduates was about one year. By the recent period, that difference reached nearly two years.

“This means that people with more education have slower biological aging than everyone else,” said Mateo Farina, assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin. “The improvements we see in population health are not being shared equally.”

Why schooling matters

Schooling sets the stage for the rest of life. It affects jobs, income, neighborhoods, and even which doctors people can see. It also ties to behavior. People with more education smoke less and exercise more.

The researchers tested whether smoking, obesity, or medication use could explain the widening gap – but education itself remained the main driver.

“Education shapes opportunities and risks throughout life,” Crimmins explained. “It’s a powerful social determinant of health, and it is leaving a mark on how fast or slow our bodies age.”

Less education leads to faster aging

The study warns that those with less schooling will not only die sooner but also spend more years living with disease and disability. That means extra strain on families, communities, and healthcare systems.

“This isn’t just a matter of individual choice; it’s a social issue,” Farina said. “If we want to reduce health disparities, we need to think about education as a public health investment.”

Inequality in aging will keep growing

Even though every group studied showed some improvement in biological aging, the rate of progress was not the same. People with college degrees benefited the most, which means the advantages were not shared equally.

Those with less education improved too, but the gains were smaller, leaving them further behind.

At the same time, obesity rates are climbing across all groups. This rise could weaken or even reverse the improvements in aging that researchers observed.

New medical treatments and technologies may help, but if only the more educated or wealthier groups have better access to them, the gap will become even larger.

The research makes one clear point: aging is not only about individual habits or inherited genes. It is also about education and the chances that come with it – or the barriers that limit people.

Without policies or actions that address these differences, the divide in how Americans age will continue to expand, creating an even bigger split between groups based on education.

The study is published in the journal Demography.

—–

Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates. 

Check us out on EarthSnap, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

—–