Early intelligence, education and mortality

2009-12-15

Adult disease and mortality are more common among persons with low socioeconomic status, SES. Recent findings on the relationship between early IQ and health has led to the controversial hypothesis that early intelligence is the explanation for the association between SES and health.

This hypothesis is tested in an article that’s being published in the British Medical Journal. The results suggest that length of own education is inversely associated with all cause-mortality until age 75, even when IQ at age 10 is adjusted for.

Thus early IQ was not the explanation for survival differences over SES in this study. At the same time, early IQ in itself was important for survival over-and-above the effect of education, and this may have implications for public health.

• Read more in BMJ