January 30, 2026 | News | Phd

Congratulations, Donata Stonkute!

Donata Stonkute, from the Laboratory of Population Health at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR), successfully defended her doctoral thesis, “Measuring and Explaining the Educational Gradient in Health Across Europe: The Role of Individual and Contextual Factors”, at the University of Helsinki. Her findings advance comparative ageing research and inform context-sensitive policies aimed at reducing health inequalities in older populations.

Donata Stonkute successfully defended her dissertation. © private

In her dissertation Donata examined educational inequalities in later-life health across Europe. Educational attainment is a powerful determinant of health in later life. It operates through multiple channels, including access to material resources, health literacy, and social and cognitive reserves. Although the association between low educational attainment and poorer health outcomes is well-documented, the extent to which these relationships vary by health area, demographic group, and institutional setting remains unclear.

Donata focused on functional, sensory and cognitive health, as well as on gender, age and national context-specific differences. Using SHARE survey data and Finnish population registers, she estimated the impact of education on years lived with and without impairment.

Her analysis revealed that, across functional limitations, sensory impairment, and cognitive impairment, education consistently emerged as a fundamental stratifier. Individuals with lower levels of education were more likely to experience adverse health outcomes and spent a larger proportion of their remaining life with health impairments. These educational differences extended beyond survival to encompass the duration of life lived with or without impairment. Generally, lower education is associated with worse health, with heterogeneity by subgroup and welfare regime, and evidence that longevity gains can shift time toward morbidity.

“Donata's dissertation advances our understanding of health inequalities, examining the relationship between education and various health outcomes across different welfare contexts. Well done!”, says Angelo Lorenti, supervisor of Donata Stonkute.

Donata was part of the International Max Planck Research School for Population, Health and Data Science (IMPRS-PHDS), a doctoral program combining demography, epidemiology and data science. The dissertation was supervised by Mikko Myrskylä, Angelo Lorenti, Jo Mhairi Hale.

Angelo Lorenti (MPIDR), Mikko Myrskylä (MPIDR, University of Helsinki), and her opponent Virginia Zarulli (University of Padua) with Donata Stonkute(left to right). © private

Belonging Publications

Stonkute, D.; Lorenti, A.; Spijker, J. J. A.:

Educational disparities in disability-free life expectancy across Europe: a focus on the East-West gaps from a gender perspective

SSM-Population Health 23:101470, 1–9. (2023)       

Stonkute, D.; Vierboom, Y. C.:

Educational disparities in age-related hearing loss and hearing aid use across age, gender, and European region

Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 80:3, 1–11. (2025)       

Stonkute, D.; Lorenti, A.; Hale, J. M.:

Educational and gender gaps in cognitive health expectancy across Europe: a prevalence-based analysis using SHARE

Social Science and Medicine 391:118886, 1–10. (2026)    

Stonkute, D.; Lorenti, A.; Korhonen, K.; Martikainen, P.; Myrskylä, M.:

Downstream of hearing loss: a population-based multistate analysis of lifetime risk and years lived with hearing loss, dementia and their comorbidity in Finland

Age and Ageing 54:12, afaf361–afaf361. (2025)