A September 2009 report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Commission to Build a Healthier America points to mountains of evidence that links years of schooling with better personal health and wellness. Here are examples from two studies: college grads live at least five years longer than non-high-school graduates; 26.7 percent of white non-Hispanic college graduates rate their health as less than very good versus 69.4 percent of white non-Hispanic high-school dropouts who do.
Not only are better-educated people healthier than less educated ones, but the children of people with more education are healthier, too. For instance, babies of mothers who are high school dropouts are twice as likely to die before the age of one as are the babies of college grads; children whose parents dropped out of high school are six times more likely to be in poor or fair health than are the kids of parents who graduated from college.
The report describes three ways education level links to health: health knowledge and behaviors, employment and income, and social and psychological factors. Let’s take a look at each category.
Health Knowledge and Behaviors
Common sense suggests that the more people know and the clearer they think, the better their health choices will be. Sure enough, research has found that greater educational attainment has been associated with healthful eating, getting exercise, and avoiding risk factors such as drinking excessively and smoking. In addition, better-educated people are quicker to change risky health behaviors in response to new evidence than less-educated people are.
Employment and Income
We all know that more education is the key to higher wages, but the actual numbers are quite startling. According to U.S. Census Bureau information, high school graduates’ lifetime earnings (in 1999 dollars) are $1.2 million, compared with $2.1 million for college graduates and $4.4 for those with professional degrees. A comfortable income helps people get the health care they need when they need it. Wealthier people are also able to live in safer neighborhoods with access to recreational facilities and other services, including grocery stores stocked with reasonably priced, healthful food.
Low-wage workers, on the other hand, have fewer resources to cope with medical, child-care, and other day-to-day difficulties. Understandably, they experience greater stress as a result. They also live in more dangerous neighborhood with fewer parks, well-stocked grocery stores, and other health-enhancing features.
Social and Psychological Factors
Studies reveal that better-educated people feel more control over their lives than less-educated people do. This sense of control encourages skills and habits such as problem solving and perseverance that lead to better health care and outcomes. More education is also linked to higher social standing, another factor strongly associated with better health. Social support is yet another way that education is related to health. People with more education have greater social support, both emotional and practical, and greater social support is linked to better physical and mental health.
The report concludes that education is the key to better health and a longer life for parents, kids, and generations to come. For details, and to learn more, visit the
Commission to Build a Healthier America. Read the “
Issue Brief: Education Matters for Health.”
Sara jo Schwartz is a education writer and editor based in Grand Haven, Michigan.