THE EFFECT OF EDUCATION ON MORTALITY AMONG OLDER TAIWANESE AND ITS PATHWAYS

The present research examines the impact of education on the mortality of older Taiwanese during a 4-year interval from April 1989 to April 1993. Data used for this study come from the Taiwan Survey of Health & Living Status of the Elderly (1989). The research decomposes the effe ct of education into the direct effect and the indirect effects by mea ns of health status, health behaviors, and social relationships. We ha ve shown that of the total effect of educational attainment on the mor tality of older Taiwanese, about 83% represents indirect influences by means of the 3 mediating factors, particularly health status. On the other hand, the magnitude of the direct effect, which might reflect in fluences of additional intervening variables on old-age mortality, is low and not statistically significant. The results demonstrate that th e apparent strong effect of education on mortality among older Taiwane se can be accounted for parsimoniously through 3 major pathways.