The Role of Education in Adult Disability in a Lowest-Income Context

Though well-established in developed settings, the form of the education-health relationship is less well known in developing settings, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Using three waves of the Malawi Survey of Families and Households (MLSFH), I estimate annual probabilities of entering into physical disability and death by age, sex, and educational attainment. I use these transition probabilities to estimate life and health expectancies by generating synthetic cohorts of individuals via microsimulation. Individuals in SSA experience substantial disability, but individuals with more education are less likely to transition to disability and death. Males with 4 or more years of education live on average 3 years longer than males with less than 4 years of education, with all of these additional years lived in active life. Females with more education do not live longer overall, but do live proportionately more of their lives without disabilities.