Lifecourse Educational Trajectories and Hypertension in Midlife: An Application of Sequence Analysis.

BACKGROUND Higher educational attainment predicts lower hypertension. Yet, associations between non-traditional educational trajectories (e.g., interrupted degree programs) and hypertension are less well understood, particularly among structurally marginalized groups who are more likely to experience these non-traditional trajectories. METHODS In National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort data (N=6,317), we used sequence and cluster analyses to identify groups of similar educational sequences - characterized by timing and type of terminal credential - that participants followed from age 14-48. Using logistic regression, we estimated associations between the resulting 10 educational sequences and hypertension at age 50. We evaluated effect modification by individual-level indicators of structural marginalization (race, gender, race and gender, and childhood socioeconomic status (cSES)). RESULTS Compared to terminal high school (HS) diploma completed at traditional age, terminal GED (OR:1.32;95%CI:1.04,1.66; RR:1.21;95%CI:1.03,1.43) or Associate Degree after

Keywords:

• Logistic regression
• Health equity
• Cohort
• Disease cluster
• Psychological intervention
• National Longitudinal Surveys
• Socioeconomic status
• Educational attainment
• Demography
• Medicine

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