Perceived control reduces mortality risk only for lower educated people

Researchers have found that adults without college degrees live longer if they feel like they're in control of their lives and those who feel little control are three times as likely to die.

Lead author Nicholas Turiano, Ph.D., a post-fellow in Psychiatry at the University of Rochester, said that being uneducated and poor doesn't mean they're doomed, despite all of the studies showing people with less education are more likely to experience disease, disability, and premature death.

The study followed 6,135 people, ages 25 to 75, for 14 years.

Turiano says that even after these other variables are taken into account, the findings held. Sense of control did not affect the mortality rate of people with higher levels of education.

The study has been published by the American Psychological Association's Health Psychology journal.