TABLE 2—
Relative Risks of Poor Health Outcomes by Educational Attainment13 and Analytic Model
| High School or Some College (95% CI) | Bachelor’s Degree (95% CI) | Graduate Degree (95% CI) | |
| Obesity (n = 3338) | |||
| Basic model | 0.94 (0.75, 1.19) | 0.72 (0.55, 0.96)* | 0.62 (0.47, 0.86)* |
| Basic + social relationships | 0.94 (0.75, 1.20) | 0.74 (0.56, 0.98)* | 0.63 (0.47, 0.88)* |
| Basic + health behaviors | 0.93 (0.74, 1.20) | 0.74 (0.56, 1.00)* | 0.63 (0.46, 0.88)* |
| Basic + financial strain | 0.95 (0.76, 1.21) | 0.75 (0.57, 0.99)* | 0.65 (0.49, 0.91)* |
| Basic + health care access | 0.92 (0.73, 1.18) | 0.71 (0.54, 0.94)* | 0.60 (0.45, 0.84)* |
| Full model | 0.93 (0.75, 1.19) | 0.75 (0.57, 0.99)* | 0.63 (0.47, 0.91)* |
| Fair or poor health (n = 3454) | |||
| Basic model | 0.39 (0.29, 0.53)* | 0.17 (0.12, 0.27)* | 0.27 (0.17, 0.42)* |
| Basic + social relationships | 0.40 (0.29, 0.56)* | 0.18 (0.12, 0.29)* | 0.29 (0.19, 0.47)* |
| Basic + health behaviors | 0.41 (0.29, 0.59)* | 0.27 (0.17, 0.45)* | 0.41 (0.25, 0.67)* |
| Basic + financial strain | 0.43 (0.31, 0.63)* | 0.25 (0.16, 0.40)* | 0.40 (0.25, 0.64)* |
| Basic + health care access | 0.39 (0.29, 0.53)* | 0.17 (0.12, 0.27)* | 0.27 (0.17, 0.42)* |
| Full model | 0.43 (0.31, 0.65)* | 0.34 (0.22, 0.56)* | 0.54 (0.32, 0.87)* |
| Depression (n = 3044) | |||
| Basic model | 0.65 (0.39, 1.20) | 0.31 (0.15, 0.68)* | 0.16 (0.06, 0.43)* |
| Basic + social relationships | 0.70 (0.40, 1.44) | 0.36 (0.17, 0.84)* | 0.19 (0.07, 0.55)* |
| Basic + health behaviors | 0.89 (0.52, 1.69) | 0.63 (0.28, 1.34) | 0.32 (0.12, 0.88)* |
| Basic + financial strain | 1.01 (0.56, 1.87) | 0.78 (0.36, 1.76) | 0.41 (0.14, 1.15) |
| Basic + health care access | 0.69 (0.41, 1.33) | 0.34 (0.16, 0.79)* | 0.18 (0.07, 0.52)* |
| Full model | 1.12 (0.60, 2.24) | 1.20 (0.51, 2.74) | 0.55 (0.16, 1.61) |
Note. CI = confidence intervals. The relative risk equals the probability of the outcome if the sample had the given educational attainment, divided by the probability of the outcome if the sample had less than a high school education. Because the reference category is less than high school education, all relative risks for less than high school education equal 1.0. “Full model” controls for all variables in the basic model, plus marital status, having any close friends, current smoking, sleep quality, exercise, and the 2 financial strain variables.
*P ≤ .05.