A woman’s health may benefit from completing education to degree level, researchers said last night.
A university degree means lower blood pressure and less depression than is found among women who leave school early, researchers said.
Researchers said women’s health seemed to benefit more than men’s from extended education.
The study, published in BMC Public Health, says reduced blood pressure is the key to female graduates’ better heart health.
Researchers found that in addition to having healthier lifestyles and better access to treatment than other women, graduates enjoyed a 2.86 mmHg reduction in systolic blood pressure – the higher of the two readings used to measure blood pressure. The figure for male graduates was 1.25 mmHg.
The findings come from an analysis of the fate of some 4,000 people studied over 30 years in a major study of heart disease in Framingham, USA.
Researcher Eric Loucks, of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA, said: "Women with less education are more likely to be experiencing depression, they are more likely to be single parents, more likely to be living in impoverished areas and more likely to be living below the poverty line."
The British Heart Foundation said not too much could be read into the findings – although they confirmed that poverty increases the risk of heart disease.
Natasha Stewart, a cardiac nurse with the BHF, said: "The study only showed up a small blood pressure drop among women and an insignificant decrease among men.
"It has its limitations too because the relatively small number of people involved were mostly from a white, suburban background. It doesn’t investigate whether the findings apply to all ethnic groups."
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