Early onset of type 1 diabetes and educational field at upper secondary and university level: Is own experience an asset for a health care career?

Ida Lovén, Katarina Steen Carlsson, Swedish Childhood Diabetes Study Group

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Ill health in early life has a significant negative impact on school grades, grade repetition, educational level, and labormarket outcomes. However, less is known about qualitative socio-economic consequences of a health shock in childhood or adolescence. We investigate the relationship between onset of type 1 diabetes up to age 15 and the probability of choosing and completing a health-oriented path at upper secondary and university level of education. We analyze the Swedish Childhood Diabetes Register, the National Educational Register, and other population registers in Sweden for 2756 people with type 1 diabetes and 10, 020 matched population controls. Educational decisions are modeled as unsorted series of binary choices to assess the choice of educational field as a potential mechanism linking early life health to adult outcomes. The analyses reject the hypothesis of no systematic differences in choice of educational field between people with and without type 1 diabetes at both levels. The results are robust to selection on ability proxies and across sensitivity analysis. We conclude that the observed pro health-oriented educational choices among people with type 1 diabetes in our data are consistent with disease onset in childhood and adolescence having qualitative impact on life-course choices.

Original languageEnglish
Article number712
JournalInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Volume14
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017 Jul 1

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • Endocrinology and Diabetes
  • Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology

Free keywords

  • Comparative advantages
  • Early life health
  • Educational choices
  • Health data registers
  • Long-term consequences
  • Real world data
  • Socioeconomic status
  • Swedish Childhood Diabetes Study
  • Type 1 diabetes

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