Question

Question 2: A lot of economics research shows a strong relationship between education and health. Describe 5 potential channels through which education would impact health?

Answer 1

The channels through which education impacts health positively are:

Channels are:

1) More awareness: More educated individuals understand the pros of a healthy lifestyle and know how to engage in good health practices. Uneducated may lack awareness and even if they do, they may lack the knowledge of how to create a healthy environment around them.

2) Safer jobs: People with higher education are expected to work in jobs that have minimum standards of safety well in place in the organized sector. This is not the case especially in developing countries where most uneducated go to the unorganized sector with haphazard measures of health and great risk of injury

3) Lifestyle: educated people indulge in a healthy lifestyle, from the food they eat to the clothes they wear. Uneducated are more likely to live an unhealthy lifestyle, by for example indulging in street food more often or not washing clothes regularly.

4) More resources: Educated people are likely to have higher incomes and thus more resources to fight disease. They can afford to purchase health insurance. Uneducated who are often the poor may lack the resources to fight even the smallest of disease and may succumb to preventable hazards.

5) Neighbourhood: Educated people usually club themselves with other educated people and it creates a neighbourhood where everyone is using best practices. A positive externaility. The opposite is true for uneducated people.