Does More Education Always Lead to Better Health? Evidence from Rural Malaysia

Table 2

Chronic disease and hospital visits.

Variables	Number of chronic diseases; (negative binomial model)	Health system contacts; (Poisson model)
Education	0.964^*** (0.0133)	0.949^** (0.0245)
Residents age	1.153^*** (0.0095)	1.089^*** (0.0144)
Residents age squared	0.999^*** ()	0.999^*** (0.000125)
Sex (omitted case: male)
Female	1.139^*** (0.0486)	1.286^*** (0.0996)
Marital status (omitted case: single)
Married	0.945 (0.0605)	1.057 (0.121)
Divorced	1.084 (0.135)	0.963 (0.231)
Widowed	0.998 (0.1000)	0.873 (0.169)
Separated	1.125 (0.261)	0.808 (0.415)
Household residents	0.997 (0.0083)	0.956^*** (0.016)
Ethnicity (omitted case: Malay)
Chinese	1.187^*** (0.0618)	1.045 (0.101)
Indian	1.255^*** (0.0917)	0.993 (0.133)
Indigenous	1.206 (0.140)	1.502^** (0.250)
Other ethnicities	0.999 (0.256)	0.735 (0.372)
Self-insurance	1.113^** (0.054)	1.112 (0.101)
Occupation (omitted case: labourer)
agric	0.998 (0.077)	0.951 (0.129)
mang	1.803^* (0.616)	1.999 (1.185)
con	0.879 (0.118)	0.851 (0.216)
edu	1.102 (0.0968)	1.085 (0.169)
eng	1.045 (0.137)	0.973 (0.231)
food	1.088 (0.118)	0.865 (0.176)
gov	1.282^** (0.145)	1.340 (0.270)
man	1.092 (0.121)	0.776 (0.176)
oth	1.164 (0.116)	0.723^* (0.140)
sal	1.024 (0.105)	0.784 (0.150)
health	0.936 (0.162)	0.939 (0.296)
sec	1.380^*** (0.144)	1.093 (0.212)
tran	0.997 (0.106)	1.174 (0.214)
prof	1.283^* (0.193)	1.147 (0.332)
Interactions: occupation and tertiary education
Agric^*ter	1.073^*** (0.533)	1.116^*** (0.045)
Mang^*ter	0.910 (0.093)	0.207 (0.042)
Con^*ter	1.083^* (0.048)	1.160^*** (0.068)
Edu^*ter	1.000 (0.112)	0.993 (0.207)
Eng^*ter	1.008 (0.038)	1.040 (0.061)
Food^*ter	0.965 (0.072)	0.209 (0.035)
Gov^*ter	0.867^*** (0.048)	0.842 (0.093)
Man^*ter	1.089^* (0.048)	0.220 (0.358)
Oth^*ter	0.971 (0.059)	1.049 (0.102)
Sal^*ter	1.055^* (0.035)	0.926 (0.102)
Health^*ter	1.022 (0.031)	0.969 (0.061)
Sec^*ter	0.906 (0.066)	1.058 (0.078)
Tran^*ter	0.932 (0.100)	0.207 (44.945)
Prof^*ter	1.033 (0.028)	1.021 (0.052)
Subdistrict (omitted case: Sungai Segamat)
Bekok	2.091^*** (0.125)	2.946^*** (0.325)
Gemereh	1.899^*** (0.120)	1.251^* (0.171)
Chaah	1.376^*** (0.113)	1.831^*** (0.273)
Jabi	1.016 (0.070)	1.263^* (0.165)
Other (unlisted subdistrict)	1.179^*** (0.068)	1.388^*** (0.155)
Constant	0.004^*** (0.0009)	0.006^*** (0.002)
Observations	8,849	8,849

Standard errors in parentheses, ^***, ^**, and ^*, lnalpha, chi-squared(1) = 40.00 (0.00).
Pearson Prob chi2(8,800) = 0.00 (chronic disease), chi2(8,800) = 0.21 (doctor visits).