A novel research published in the journal PLOS ONE has unveiled that good education is quite important. Researchers have in fact stated that not being well educated can prove as dangerous to health as smoking.

The researchers have calculated risks associated with not having good education in the US. They came to know that lives of more than 145,000 adults in 2010 could have been saved if adults would have finished GED or high school diploma.

In addition, lives of another 11,000 could have saved if people went to college, but did not complete their degree would have completed it. The researchers said education’s effect on mortality can be estimated.

The estimation was calculated through existing data on mortality rates for different levels of educational attainment. The data was adjusted to different populations and then multiplied to have a number of deaths.

The researchers included factors like childhood health and genetic factors. Study’s researcher Patrick Krueger, a professor at the University of Colorado Denver, said the paper does not look at causality directly and has based findings on previous studies.

There are a number of papers stating that poor education can lead to problems including improper health care, poor nutrition, poor housing and working conditions. These factors lead to increased stress levels, which further affect the immune system and cardiovascular health.

Kruger said that it is a complicated casual link. It can be said that better education means higher quality of life.