Contexts

Americans are healthier than ever before, yet people report being in poor health at higher levels than in the past. Scholars have suspected that this paradox may be due to increased health consciousness and inflated expectations for good health, but research results have been mixed. Jason Schnittker’s work (Social Forces, June 2009) reveals that perceptions of poor health are dynamically shaped by education and age.

Using longitudinal data from the National Health Interview Survey between 1972 and 1996, Schnittker shows that rising levels of education through the early 1980s explain most of the paradoxical increase in perceptions of poor health. In other words, more education and awareness of health and medicine makes Americans more likely to evaluate their own physical well-being critically. However, population aging has recently slowed the rise in self-reported poor health, indicating that perhaps people are more accepting of health limitations as they age.

Although the study does not reveal why education levels matter so much, it’s clear that higher levels of education play a big part in cultural understandings of, and demand for, better health.