Income and Resources
“Being educated now means getting better employment, teaching our
kids to be successful and just making a difference in, just in everyday
life.” —Brenda
Better jobs: In today’s knowledge economy, an
applicant with more education is more likely to be employed and land a
job that provides health-promoting benefits such as health insurance,
paid leave, and retirement.
5 Conversely, people with less education are more likely to work in high-risk occupations with few benefits.
Higher earnings: Income has a major effect on health and workers with more education tend to earn more money.
2
In 2012, the median wage for college graduates was more than twice that
of high school dropouts and more than one and a half times higher than
that of high school graduates.
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“Definitely having a good education and a good paying job can relieve a lot of mental stress.”
—Chimere
Resources for good health: Families with higher
incomes can more easily purchase healthy foods, have time to exercise
regularly, and pay for health services and transportation. Conversely,
the job insecurity, low wages, and lack of assets associated with less
education can make individuals and families more vulnerable during hard
times—which can lead to poor nutrition, unstable housing, and unmet
medical needs.
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Social and Psychological Benefits
“So through school, we learn how to socially engage with other
classmates. We learn how to engage with our teachers. How we speak to
others and how we allow that to grow as we get older allows us to learn
how to ask those questions when we're working within the healthcare
system, when we're working with our doctor to understand what is going
on with us.”
—Chanel
Reduced stress: People with more education—and thus
higher incomes—are often spared the health-harming stresses that
accompany prolonged social and economic hardship. Those with less
education often have fewer resources (e.g., social support, sense of
control over life, and high self-esteem) to buffer the effects of
stress.
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Social and psychological skills: Education in school
and other learning opportunities outside the classroom build skills and
foster traits that are important throughout life and may be important
to health, such as conscientiousness, perseverance, a sense of personal
control, flexibility, the capacity for negotiation, and the ability to
form relationships and establish social networks. These skills can help
with a variety of life’s challenges—from work to family life—and with
managing one’s health and navigating the health care system.
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Social networks: Educated adults tend to have larger
social networks—and these connections bring access to financial,
psychological, and emotional resources that may help reduce hardship and
stress and improve health.
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“Being able to advocate and ask for what you want, helps to
facilitate a healthier lifestyle. … If it's needing your community to
have green spaces, have a park, a playground, have better trails within
the community, advocating for that will help.”
—Chanel
Health Behaviors
Knowledge and skills: In addition to being prepared
for better jobs, people with more education are more likely to learn
about healthy behaviors. Educated patients may be more able to
understand their health needs, follow instructions, advocate for
themselves and their families, and communicate effectively with health
providers.
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Healthier Neighborhoods
“Poor neighborhoods oftentimes lead to poor schools. Poor schools
lead to poor education. Poor education oftentimes leads to poor work.
Poor work puts you right back into the poor neighborhood. It's a vicious
cycle that happens in communities, especially inner cities.” —Albert
Lower income and fewer resources mean that people with less education
are more likely to live in low-income neighborhoods that lack the
resources for good health. These neighborhoods are often economically
marginalized and segregated and have more risk factors for poor health
such as:
- Less access to supermarkets or other
sources of healthy food and an oversupply of fast food restaurants and
outlets that promote unhealthy foods.25
“If the best thing that you see in the neighborhood is a drug dealer,
then that becomes your goal. If the best thing you see in your
neighborhood is working a 9 to 5, then that becomes your goal. But if
you see the doctors and the lawyers, if you see the teachers and the
professors, then that becomes your goal.” —Marco
“It's a lot of things going on [in this community], a lot of
challenges. It's just hard sometimes to try and get people to come
together, as one, just so we can solve the problem.” —Toni
- Less green space, such as sidewalks and parks to encourage outdoor physical activity and walking or cycling to work or school.
- Rural and low-income areas, which are more populated by people with
less education, often suffer from shortages of primary care physicians
and other health care providers and facilities.
- Higher crime rates, exposing residents to greater risk of trauma and
deaths from violence and the stress of living in unsafe neighborhoods.
People with less education, particularly males, are more likely to be
incarcerated, which carries its own public health risks.
- Fewer high-quality schools, often because public schools are poorly
resourced by low property taxes. Low-resourced schools have greater
difficulty offering attractive teacher salaries or properly maintaining
buildings and supplies.
- Fewer jobs, which can exacerbate the economic hardship and poor health that is common for people with less education.
- Higher levels of toxins, such as air and water pollution, hazardous waste, pesticides, andindustrial chemicals.27
- Less effective political influence to advocate for community needs, resulting in a persistent cycle of disadvantage.
2. Poor Health That Affects Education (Reverse Causality)
“Things that happen in the home can definitely affect a child being
able to even concentrate in the classroom. … If you're hungry, you can't
learn with your belly growling. … If you’re worried about your mom
being safe while you're at school, you're not going to be able to pay
attention.” —Chimere
The relationship between education and health is never a simple one.
Poor health not only results from lower educational attainment, it can
also cause educational setbacks and interfere with schooling.
For example, children with asthma and other chronic illnesses may
experience recurrent absences and difficulty concentrating in class.
28
Disabilities can also affect school performance due to difficulties
with vision, hearing, attention, behavior, absenteeism, or cognitive
skills.
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3. Conditions Throughout the Life Course—Beginning in Early Childhood—That Affect Both Health and Education
A third way that education can be linked to health is by exposure to
conditions, beginning in early childhood, which can affect both
education and health. Throughout life, conditions at home, socioeconomic
status, and other contextual factors can create stress, cause illness,
and deprive individuals and families of resources for success in school,
the workplace, and healthy living.
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What about social policy?
Social policy—decisions about jobs, the economy, education reform,
etc.—is an important driver of educational outcomes AND affects all of
the factors described in this brief. For example, underperforming
schools and discrimination affect not only educational outcomes but also
economic success, the social environment, personal behaviors, and
access to quality health care. Social policy affects the education
system itself but, in addition, individuals with low educational
attainment and fewer resources are more vulnerable to social policy
decisions that affect access to health care, eligibility for aid, and
support services.
A growing body of research suggests that chronic exposure of infants
and toddlers to stressors—what experts call “adverse childhood
experiences”—can affect brain development and disturb the child’s
endocrine and immune systems, causing biological changes that increase
the risk of heart disease and other conditions later in life (see
Graphic 1). For example:
“The connection that I will say between education and health would be
a healthy mind produces a healthy person. A motivated mind produces a
motivated person. A curious mind produces a curious person. When you
have those things it drives you to want to know more, to want to have
more, to want to inquire more. And when you want more, you will get
more. You know where the mind goes the person follows… and that includes
health.” —Marco
- The adverse effects of stress on the developing brain and on
behavior can affect performance in school and explain setbacks in
education. Thus, the correlation between lower educational attainment
and illness that is later observed among adults may have as much to do
with the seeds of illnessand disability that are planted before children
ever reach school age as witheducation itself.
- Children exposed to stress may also be drawn to unhealthy
behaviors—such as smoking or unhealthy eating—during adolescence, the
age when adult habits are often first established.
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What about individual characteristics?
Characteristics of individuals and families are important in the
relationship between education and health. Race, gender, age, disability
and other personal characteristics often affect educational
opportunities and success in school (see Issue Brief #1). Discrimination
and racism have multiple links to education and health. Racial
segregation reduces educational and job opportunities51 and is associated with worse health outcomes.52, 53
How does education impact health in your community?
The Center on Society and Health (CSH) worked with members of
Engaging Richmond, a community-academic partnership that included
residents of the East End, a disadvantaged neighborhood of Richmond,
Virginia. This inquiry into the links between education and health was a
pilot study to learn how individuals could add to our understanding of
this complex issue using the lens of their own experiences.
What does your community have to say about the links between
education and health – or other health disparities? Learn more about
community research partnerships and community engagement:
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