Education as a Social Determinant of Health
Education is a key social determinant of health. A rounded education equips individuals with the skills and abilities to directly influence their long term health outcomes. Those with higher levels of education are expected to live up to four years longer than those with low educational attainment. There are many reasons as to why education influences our health, some more obvious than others. For the sake of time and clarity, let’s have a look at two main reasons: the first being the nature of work people can get due to their qualifications and the second one is the skills one develops to navigate life’s challenges.
1. Nature of work due to qualifications
Education directly plays an important role in health by shaping opportunities, employment, and income. Participation in higher education allows individuals to attain better employment opportunities, and experience lower levels of employment meaning they have more disposable income and job security which is linked to reduced stress. The movement away from ‘unskilled’ labour means that work environments are safe and healthy, adding to the person’s quality of life and protecting them from later life disadvantages. A better salary means an individual can afford a good quality of life. They can afford to form healthy habits, whether that is eating better quality foods, exercising regularly and even enjoying themselves and doing leisurely activities such as travelling or going to the spa all increase their quality of life and can impact positively on health. A study by Yu-Tzu Wu et al. illustrated that differences in education and wealth established earlier in life were strongly associated with inequalities in healthy ageing across a large, multi-country cohort of older people.
Education is described as ‘the single most important modifiable social determinant of health ‘ because a positive educational experience influences more than one social determination of health. Effects of unemployment, the risk of which is increased by low educational attainment, can affect an entire household. Children growing up in unemployed households are more likely to perform badly at school and t greater risk of poor physical and mental health. They can also enter a cyclic pattern due to the fact that their risk of unemployment also increases.
2. Skills learnt to navigate life’s challenges
Whilst education is key in shaping employment opportunities, it also increases the capacity for better decision making regarding one’s health, and provides scope for increasing social and personal resources that are vital for physical and mental health. A good education provides a strong foundation for supportive social networks, life long learning, problem-solving and feelings of empowerment and value. Education in school and other learning opportunities outside the classroom build skills traits that are important throughout life and may be important to health. Increased ‘learnt effectiveness’ is associated with education because soft skills, which are a combination of people, social, communication skills or personality traits and attributes, are linked to success in education, employment and a reduction in mortality. Education can help strengthen coping skills and increase personal control, leading to healthier behaviours. It also increases access to information, and coupled with critical thinking skills to decipher good information from misinformation can limit exposure to harm. Schools are also a space for social interactions which can lead to better social networks for children in the future.
The relationship is never simple. Poor health is also linked to low educational attainment, for example, a child with asthma is likely to miss school regularly due to poor health which fragments their learning and can make it difficult to concentrate. Education and health can have an inverse relationship too but there is a positive correlation between good quality education and good health. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, school closures have been largely discussed. Remote learning does not give the same effectiveness as face to face classes. As side from knowledge, schools provide spaces for social and emotional development, physical exercise, safety, and a short break for those in poor, violent, or abusive households. The link between education and health is a very obvious one and it encompasses various social determinants.
