Explanations

Education and health: how are they related?

Liz Blamire

16th November 2023

In health and social care we must consider the factors that affect our health outcomes. If we take a holistic approach, we must consider the physical, intellectual, emotional and social aspects of our health and wellbeing. It can be quite obvious that biological factors affect health, for example viruses such as Covid-19 can make us very unwell. However, the social determinants of health also tell us that factors that affect our health are wide and varied:

The Social Determinants of Health

Educational outcomes and economic status

In this excellent piece by The Conversation, we can see some of the reasons why students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds to do not generally perform as well in exams as their wealthier peers:

GCSE and Higher results show worsening gap between richer and poorer pupils: pandemic assessment shows we should reconsider exams

But how does having poorer educational outcomes affect health?

Evidence from many countries confirms that there is a strong correlation between educational attainment, life expectancy and self-reported health, within and across generations.

This piece by the King's Fund - Healthy schools and pupils - summarises some of the issues and some potential solutions.

Liz Blamire

Liz is the current tutor2u subject lead for Health and Social Care. She is a former NHS midwife, who has worked in community, birth centre and acute hospital settings. Liz is an SSAT Accredited Lead Practitioner, who has taught Health and Social Care in FE and secondary schools, where she was a successful HOD. Liz is an experienced senior examiner and author.

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