Is there a relationship between schooling and risky health behaviors in Colombia?

Abstract

This paper uses the National Health Survey to analyze the relationship between education and risky health behaviors, namely smoking, heavy drinking, obesity, and unsafe sexual behavior, by estimating the education gradient. We also provide evidence on the effect of education, socio-economic and knowledge variables on these health behaviors by gender and area of residence. The results indicate that there is a negative and significant effect of years of schooling on the probability of smoking, whereas the probability of heavy drinking and unsafe sexual behaviors increase with education, highlighting the importance of social and cultural factors.

Keywords

• Education
• risky health behaviors
• logit
• Colombia