Education
Attainment | Attendance | Schools
About 3 mins
Why education matters for health
A good education can create better economic opportunities and is important for our future health and prospects.
Higher qualifications often lead to higher-quality jobs, higher incomes and lifetime earnings. These all enable a good standard of living, and greater ability to afford essential goods and services that support good health.
Education can improve our ability to understand and use health-related information. Good health literacy makes us more likely to choose healthier options, such as eating a balanced diet or exercising.
A good education can also have social and psychological benefits – building confidence, problem-solving skills and social networks that support our mental and emotional wellbeing.
Health influences education as well. Poor health can disrupt education, leading to worse attainment and lifetime earnings.
What is the relationship between educational attainment and health?
Achieving educational qualifications can lead to better job opportunities, better quality work and a higher income. It also positively affects our health behaviours – the actions and habits that influence our health.
A higher level of education can be perceived to denote higher social status. This status can make us feel more in control of our lives and our heath. It can also directly affect health, as people of lower socioeconomic status can face bias from health care professionals.
Although education can help overcome health inequalities that are caused by disadvantage, it can also entrench disadvantage if this is not addressed at an early stage. For instance, reaching an expected level of development at early ages can have a knock-on positive effect through to older ages – and failing to reach these levels can have a cumulative negative impact.
The benefits of education can be affected by other factors like availability of jobs and social mobility, so higher qualifications alone may not lead to better outcomes.
How does school attendance affect health?
Low or irregular attendance at school and in post-16 education can affect attainment, which in turn can affect opportunities later in life and indirectly affect our health.
Increased absences from school can have more immediate effects on our health. The effects could be curriculum-based such as missing personal, social, health and economic education. They can also be health-specific such as missing school-based vaccination programmes or interventions to improve children’s wellbeing and mental health.
As low attendance can also be due to ill health, a cycle of ill health and absence can occur, compounding the negative impact on health. Frequent school absence can also affect our mental health, making it more difficult to return to educational settings and activities.
How do schools influence health?
Good quality schools offer a nurturing and learning environment, which can have an impact on children and young people’s cognitive, social and emotional development. The quality of this environment during children’s early years can provide a solid foundation for their future development and attainment. It can also have a positive impact on their future wellbeing, mental and physical health. A good school environment can help to reduce the negative effects of issues outside children and young peoples’ control – such as poverty – on their education.
This isn’t just about cognitive skills, such as literacy and problem-solving. Non-cognitive skills, including social skills, are important too. Research has shown that both cognitive and non-cognitive skills influence later life. Good-quality teaching is instrumental in equipping pupils with these skills and determining their level of attainment.
