A physical checkup often begins with a series of questions: What foods do you eat? Do you smoke? Getting any exercise? New research suggests another telling indicator could be added to that list: What was your college major? The study finds one's chosen field of college study is a statistically significant predictor of health in midlife.
The researchers find the four majors associated with the best midlife health are architecture/engineering, biology/life sciences, business, and—here's a surprise—communications/journalism. Perhaps chasing after big stories keeps us journalists in shape.
It has long been established that people with more education tend to be healthier. But does one's major matter? To find out, the researchers analyzed data from the nationally representative American Community Survey.
Their sample consisted of 3.7 million United States-born adults between the ages of 45 and 64—the time of life when physical functioning problems start to appear. Participants noted whether they had difficulty walking or climbing stairs, dressing or bathing. A "yes" answer in any of those categories resulted in a grade of relatively poor health.
The researchers focused on the 667,362 participants who earned a bachelor's degree, but went no further in their education. They noted each person's college major, which they placed into one of 15 categories. They found substantial differences in health across majors. Two majors are particularly disadvantaged in midlife. The chances of poor health are 1.9 times greater among psychology /social work and law/public policy majors compared to business majors. The researchers argue this is likely due to several factors. Psychology majors tend to suffer from high unemployment and low earnings. Law/public policy majors often enter the field of law enforcement（执行）.
The researchers say that they have discovered associations, not proof of causality（因果关系）. But they make a convincing case that some majors lead people to live healthier lifestyles than others. Their findings might even inspire a warning country song: Mammas, don't let your babies grow up to be psychology majors.
