The more you study, the better your chances to live longer are, a new study by the Harvard School of Medicine suggests.

Ellen R. Meara, an assistant professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School and colleagues collected data on people who took part in the National Longitudinal Mortality Study. The researchers used death certificates, plus estimates from Census data, to create two datasets, one covering 1981 to 1988 and the other from 1990 to 2000.

The study found that in both datasets, life expectancy rose but only for people with more than 12 years of education. For those with less than 12 years of education, life expectancy remained flat through the periods. To be more exact, those with more than 12 years of education can expect to live to 82, while for the others life expectancy is 75.

“If you look in recent decades, you will find that life expectancy has been increasing, which is good, but when you split this out by better-educated groups, the life expectancy gained is really occurring much more so in the better-educated groups,” Meara said.

She also describes the reasons, which have led to this increase in life expectancy. One of them seems to be smoking and the illnesses it causes. The less educated have not given up smoking to the extent that those with higher education levels have, Meara said.

“As information about how to live longer, healthier lives becomes available and technologies become available to help you do things like quit smoking or lead a less sedentary lifestyle, we have to some extent figured out successful ways to do this,” Meara said.

The researchers also blamed obesity for decreased life expectancy between less educated people.

“As with smoking, obesity is more common among the less-educated than among the better-educated. Further, recent research suggests that obesity might contribute to nearly as many deaths as tobacco does.”

Meara underlined that even “if you hear that life-expectancy lengthening and it’s getting better, it’s important to remember that isn’t the case for everyone.”

The researchers have concluded that creating a wider net of health-awareness programs in less-educated people is the only way to increase their life expectancy.

The findings appear in the March/April issue of Health Affairs.