Why education matters to health: Exploring the causes

Americans with more education live longer, healthier lives than those with fewer years of schooling. But why does education matter so much to health? The links are complex—and tied closely to income and to the skills and opportunities that people have to lead healthy lives in their communities. How are health and education linked? There are three main connections:

• Education can create opportunities for better health 
• Poor health can put educational attainment at risk (reverse causality) 
• Conditions throughout people’s lives—beginning in early childhood—can affect both health and education. (author abstract)