Every year spent in an educational institution increases life expectancy

Every year spent at school or university increases life expectancy, while not attending school is as deadly as smoking or drinking too much alcohol, the Albanian Post reported.
This marks the first systematic study to directly link education to life expectancy benefits.
Based on data from industrialized countries such as the UK and US, as well as developing countries such as China and Brazil, the review found that the risk of death in adults decreases by 2% for every year spent in full-time education.
Completing primary, secondary and tertiary education is equivalent to eating a healthy diet over a lifetime, reducing the risk of death by 34% compared to people with no formal education, according to a peer-reviewed analysis in The Lancet Public Health journal.
Conversely, missing school at any time is as harmful to adult health as consuming five or more alcoholic drinks a day or smoking 10 cigarettes a day for a decade.
The study contributes to efforts in England to ensure children attend school, with experts saying the results highlight links between school attendance and health.
It also means that raising the school leaving age and increasing the number of young people continuing their education may contribute to increasing life expectancy in the future.
Although the benefits of education on life expectancy have been known for a long time, the review by scientists from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and the University of Washington in Seattle is the first to quantify the number of years of education and their relationship to the reduction of mortality.
Neil Davies, professor of medical statistics at University College London and an expert on the relationship between education and health, who was not involved in the research, called it "impressive work".
"Higher absenteeism rates can cause children to miss out on future health benefits," Davis noted.
"It is worth noting that increased levels of school absenteeism have far-reaching consequences beyond their health effects," he added. /BGNES