Educational disparities in U.S. adult health are the focus of a presentation by a Maxwell School professor at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA) in Philadelphia.

Jennifer Karas Montez, professor of sociology and Gerald B. Cramer Faculty Scholar of Aging Studies, will discuss inequalities in adult mortality across all educational levels. She and co-authors Mark D. Hayward and Anna Zajacova—professors at The University of Texas at Austin and Western University, respectively—also will explore how these inequalities differ across U.S. states.

According to Karas Montez, disparities in U.S. adult health are large and growing. "Adults living in certain American states suffer from more illnesses and more disability, as well as die sooner than residents of others," says the 2018 Andrew Carnegie Fellow, who also teaches in the College of Arts and Sciences. "Despite considerable research, the cause of such disparity and the strategies used to shrink it are poorly understood. This knowledge gap reflects the individualist paradigm in U.S. studies, with its focus on individual behaviors at the expense of economic policies."

Read more in the SU News article "Professor to Address Educational Disparities in U.S. Adult Health," written by Rob Enslin.

08/21/18