The Effect of Education on Mortality among Older Taiwanese and its Pathways

The present research examines the impact of education on the mortality of older Taiwanese during a four-year interval, from April, 1989 to April, 1993. Data used for this study comes from the Taiwan Survey of Health and Living Status of the Elderly. The results suggest that among older Taiwanese, education has a strong negative impact on the level of mortality. The research also decomposes the effect of education into the direct effect and the indirect effects via health status, health behaviors, and social relationships. We have shown that, of the total effect of educational attainment on the mortality of older Taiwanese, about 83 percent represents indirect influences via the three mediating factors, particularly health status. On the other hand, the magnitude of the direct effect, which might reflect influences of additional intervening variables on old-age mortality, is low and not statistically significant.

Dataset(s): Taiwan Survey of Health and Living Status of the Elderly (1989).