Stay in School for Better Health

People with more education are likely to live longer, experience better health outcomes, and practice health-promoting behaviors such as exercising regularly, refraining from smoking, and obtaining timely health care check-ups and screenings, says a new issue brief from the Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ) Foundation that explores how educational attainment influences health.

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Sep 18, 2009 9:30 AM - More education generally means a greater likelihood of being employed, and of having a job with healthier working conditions, better employment-based benefits, and higher wages. In addition, education also confers to shaping people’s sense of control and their perceptions of the extent to which they can influence their life circumstances. Increased sense of control in turn has been linked with health outcomes including higher levels of self-rated health, lower levels of physical impairment, and decreased risk of chronic conditions; it also has been associated with health-related behaviors.

The report also examines the links between parents’ education and their children’s health and social advantages. Parents with lower educational attainment typically face greater obstacles -including lack of knowledge, skills, time, money, and other resources - to creating healthy home environments and modeling healthy behaviors for their children.

Education can be key in promoting social mobility and in breaking the cycle of intergenerational disadvantage and related health disparities, says the report. Investments to promote and increase educational attainment could have both human and economic benefits.