Military Service, Childhood Socio-Economic Status, and Late-Life Lung Function: Korean War Era Military Service Associated with Smaller Disparities

Abstract

Korean War era military service appears to disproportionately benefit low-cSES veteran lung functioning, resulting in smaller socio-economic disparities among veterans compared with non-veterans.

Do the health benefits of education vary by sociodemographic subgroup? Differential returns to education and implications for health inequities

“…Our finding that certain vulnerable subgroups benefit more from each year of education in terms of their mental health suggests these groups may be leveraging the additional skills and resources that come with each year of education to attain better mental health. These results are consistent with previous findings that women 4 , low cSES groups 31–33 , and Black women 5 benefit more from education in predicting health.…”

“…Work examining the Korean War and Vietnam War GI Bills, which provided generous college education subsidies to qualifying veterans, found that such education-promoting policies predicted smaller socioeconomic disparities in physical 31 , mental 32 , and cognitive 33 health among older adults by disproportionately benefiting low cSES veterans. The current findings are consistent with those results for physical health and extend results to a middle-aged sample and more recent birth cohorts.…”

Mother’s education and late-life disparities in memory and dementia risk among US military veterans and non-veterans

“…However, our analyses also add that those from low maternal education backgrounds may particularly benefit from this type of social exposure, resulting in smaller socioeconomic disparities. Similar findings of smaller socioeconomic disparities among GI Bill-eligible veterans compared to non-veterans for mental 14 and physical 15 health outcomes makes us more confident in these results.…”

“…Numerous social policies, including benefits for military veterans 10,11 improve adult SES. In particular, U.S. military service since the World War II era (U.S. involvement: 1941 – 1945) has conveyed social and economic benefits to veterans, including college education subsidies; these benefits have been shown to increase SES in multiple dimensions 11–13 and improve health 14,15 . Furthermore, evidence suggests that groups that experience socioeconomic disadvantage in childhood may disproportionately benefit from military service and benefits in terms of economic 12 and health outcomes; Korean War GI Bill eligibility predicts smaller socioeconomic disparities in markers for mental health 14 and lung function 15 among veterans compared to non-veterans.…”

Differential associations between state-level educational quality and cardiovascular health by race: Early-life exposures and late-life health

“…A promising mechanism to reduce disparities in CVD is through educational interventions. For example, eligibility for the college education subsidies provided by the Korean War and Vietnam War GI Bills are associated with smaller socioeconomic disparities in mental (Vable et al, 2016), physical (Vable, Kiang et al, 2018), and cognitive (Vable, Eng et al, 2018) health among veterans compared to non-veterans. Similarly, a randomized high-quality early childhood education intervention resulted in better cardiovascular and metabolic outcomes in adulthood (Campbell et al, 2014).…”