Healthcare Assignment: Review on Education & Mortality in US

Question

Task

Read the article “The relationship between Education and Adult Mortality in the United States” and write a healthcare assignment answering the below questions:

1. There is an observed correlation between education and health. Give 2-3 reasons for why more education leads to better health, why better health leads to more education, and what other factors may lead to increases in both
2. What would the implications be for policymakers if we learned that it was increases in education that was causing better health?
3. What would the implications be for policymakers if we learned the correlation went from health to education?
4. What is Adriana Lleras-Muney’s finding with respect to education and health?
5. What data is this based on?
6. What are the strengths of this data?
7. What if any are the weaknesses of this data?
8. What is your own intuition regarding the relationship between health and education, and why?

Answer

1-There is an observed correlation between education and health. In the present context of healthcare assignment, give 2-3 reasons for why more education leads to better health, why better health leads to more education, and what other factors may lead to increases in both.
Education and Health are two directly proportionate words. A good education leads to good health, and simultaneously, good health can lead to a good education. According to the study of Galama, Lleras-Muney and Van (2018), people with good education and high income can lead to a stress-free life both socially and economically, which is an excellent example of the correlation between education and health. Proper education of people helps to increase their circle of social networking which is essential for reducing emotional, psychological, and financial resources. It also helps to improve both mental healths. Poor health can also result in a lower educational background which can lead to academic setbacks and school interference. As per the view of Carruthers (2019), for getting a better job, it is vital to be well educated for the concerned job profile which can result in good health at and simultaneously with the help of a sufficient income from that job. There are various other factors that can lead to better education and better health for an individual. Some of those factors are the reduction of stress which in turn helps proper education without any tension or hardship and finally leads to better health conditions. Proper education can enhance various skills and pieces of knowledge which are important to improve behavior regarding health so that one can get a better job for securing his or her own professional life without any difficulties which will also help in better health and life conditions. The neighborhood also enhances the proper education of an individual and also for better health.

2-What would the implications be for policymakers if we learned that it was increased in education that was causing better health?
There can be various policies through which education can lead to better health. In many places, it has been noticed that due to lack of proper education and economic stability people are not becoming literate. So, for that, there is a need for a compulsory education system from a certain academic year for the students from the government which can help them to stabilize their economy resulting in good health without any stress, as per the opinion of Medina, Castleberry and Persky (2017). Mid-day meals and meals for the people who want to study at night can be a better approach towards health concerns from the government. Education is the only pathway through which proper health life can be obtained. Compulsory education for health-related issues can also bring the consciousness of the people through education for their individual health which can help them to understand the importance of healthy life. As per the view of Kari et al (2020), people who work in an organization with a minimal level of education are also needed to be educated moor so that they can get better opportunities for leaving a better life. Motivational classes can also be a solution for those people that help them to be strong and courageous to start a new life with proper education. In the context of every organizational recruitment process, there should be some compulsory criteria for education which will help the people to become m targeted for that job so that they can get a proper healthy life through a stable economic pay.

3-What would the implications be for policymakers if we learned the correlation went from health to education?
In public health, 3 key associations between education and health have been investigated by researchers and practitioners. First of all, wellbeing is a requirement for education: starving children or children that are unable to hear properly or who have constant toothaches, for example, are unable to read (Halpern-Manners et al. 2016). Second, preventive education (i.e. health education) exists within classrooms and in multiple programs in public health. Thus, in terms of policy making, it is essential that the healthcare authority and the department of education work unitedly. If there is no adequate policy of removing starvation, then there will be fewer footfalls in schools. From the other side, if the education department does not develop an effective curriculum, various health-related learning would remain undelivered (Delaruelleet al. 2018). In this way, it can be considered that there are significant implications for policy makers if correlation between health and education can be established.

4-What is Adriana Lleras-Muney’s finding with respect to education and health?
The study has categorized educational future impacts into two categories: primary and indirect impacts. The study has found out that training provides people with analytical reasoning capabilities that are beneficial in health development, among the direct consequences (Taken from source). To that impact, there is some evidence. For instance, the study found that diabetes and Aids therapies are more likely to be adhered to by the more educated. The most trained are best able to treat chronic illnesses. The study indicates that since therapies are nuanced and there is space for learning by doing, education matters. The study measured success rates of different contraceptive methods for women with different levels of education, and have also reported these mechanisms: they find that success rates for "easy" methods such as the pill are similar for all women, but the rhythm approach is only successful for educated women (Taken from source). If this is the case, then the study opines that education's relationship with a number of variables might be important. For instance, while access to knowledge alone does not explain health disparities between education classes, if they can use the information more, information accessible to the more educated can result in greater benefits for them.

5-What data is this based on?
In this research study, this data is based on the censuses of 1960, 1970 and also 1980 of the U.S. that involves 1% of the random samples in regard to the population. This census is based on the information in regard to sex, state of birth, age, and education. Also this data is based on all the white individuals who were aged 14 years and situated within the 48 states of the U.S in between the years 1914-1939 (Taken from Source). This data depicts no missing values with regards to completed educational years. This census data was utilized for following synthetic cohorts. Even though this data did not observe similar individuals over a period of time, hence was unable to observe the deaths but it did observe similar groups over a period of time and this allowed the researcher to calculate the death rates of the groups. Also this data is based on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey I Epidemiological Follow-up Study of 1992 and was based on 14407 individuals aged between 25-74 years.

6-What are the strengths of this data?
The strength of this data as observed in the research study is that it is collected based on the factors of the State level which contributed towards the growth with regards to secondary education from the year 1915 to the year 1939 or could simply affect mortality. Also this data included the expenditures of the state in regard to education, school buildings number per acre, percentage of the population dwelling within the urban areas, percentage of white population who were employed within manufacturing, per workers average annual wages within manufacturing, farm property’s average value per acre and also the number of potential doctors per capita (Taken from Source). All this information was highly essential for conducting this study and also for uncovering a positive correlation in between health as well as education.

7-What if any are the weaknesses of this data?
One major weakness of this particular data that is faced is the measurement error while estimating the death rates in regard to the groups. This was mainly because of a random sampling method that the total number of deaths was overestimated half of the time and also underestimated half of the time with regards to every cohort. Due to this, few estimated rates of deaths were observed to be negative. Also as per the data obtained from the graphs, the two issues were observed that concerned the rate of deaths, i.e., evidence of age-heaping and huge falls in regard to the death rates for the younger cohorts in between the census years of 1960-1970 (Taken from Source). The issue with the age-heaping are observed because for the ages which are multiples of 10, the rate of deaths falls since the individuals tend towards over-reporting their age and also select multiples of 10 while doing so.

8-What is your own intuition regarding the relationship between health and education, and why?
Education, the obtained substance and personal characteristic, is both a vital component of the health of an individual and a leading cause of other aspects of the concurrent and potential health of the person (Zajacova and Lawrence, 2018). Educational success should broadly be a valid arena for public health action because it is both an important aspect and a significant contributing cause to health. Therefore, practitioners of public health may legitimately advocate educational activities to promote public health. It is therefore important to consider education as an integral condition for breaking the cycle of poverty and health inequality (Chahine et al. 2018). To help understand the causal associations between education and health, the public health sector should extend research and thereby find evidence-based educational policies that have great potential to enhance public health.

References
Carruthers, C., (2019) OPINION: Better governance leads to better health care systems. MD, MSc, GöranHenriks and Martin Rejler, MD. Accessed from: Carruthers, C., OPINION: Better governance leads to better health care systems. MD, MSc, GöranHenriks and Martin Rejler, MD.

Chahine, S., Kulasegaram, K.M., Wright, S., Monteiro, S., Grierson, L.E., Barber, C., Sebok-Syer, S.S., McConnell, M., Yen, W., De Champlain, A. and Touchie, C., (2018). A call to investigate the relationship between education and health outcomes using big data. Academic Medicine, 93(6), pp.829-832. Accessed From: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Saad_Chahine/publication/323761478_A_Call_to_Investigate_the_Relationship_Between_Education_and_Health_Outcomes_Using_Big_Data/links/5aac25fc0f7e9b4897bc937a/A-Call-to-Investigate-the-Relationship-Between-Education-and-Health-Outcomes-Using-Big-Data.pdf

Delaruelle, K., Buffel, V. and Bracke, P., (2018). The reversal of the gender gap in education: what does it mean for gender differences in the relationship between education and health. European Sociological Review, 34(6), pp.629-644. Accessed From: https://biblio.ugent.be/download/8574052/8574053.pdf

Galama, T.J., Lleras-Muney, A. and Van Kippersluis, H., (2018). The Effect of Education on Health and Mortality: A Review of Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Evidence. Accessed from: https://www.nber.org/papers/w24225

Halpern-Manners, A., Schnabel, L., Hernandez, E.M., Silberg, J.L. and Eaves, L.J., (2016). The relationship between education and mental health: new evidence from a discordant twin study. Social Forces, 95(1), pp.107-131. Accessed From: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Landon_Schnabel/publication/303440434
_The_Relationship_between_Education_and_Mental_Health_New_Evidence_from_a_
Discordant_Twin_Study/links/5ffb0c81a6fdccdcb8464907/The-Relationship-between-Education-and-Mental-Health-New-Evidence-from-a-Discordant-Twin-Study.pdf

Kari, J.T., Viinikainen, J., Böckerman, P., Tammelin, T.H., Pitkänen, N., Lehtimäki, T., Pahkala, K., Hirvensalo, M., Raitakari, O.T. and Pehkonen, J., (2020). Education leads to a more physically active lifestyle: Evidence based on Mendelian randomization. Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports, 30(7), pp.1194-1204. Accessed from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/sms.13653

Medina, M.S., Castleberry, A.N. and Persky, A.M., (2017). Strategies for improving learner metacognition in health professional education. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 81(4). Accessed from: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0142159X.2017.1340636

Zajacova, A. and Lawrence, E.M., (2018). The relationship between education and health: reducing disparities through a contextual approach. Annual review of public health, 39, pp.273-289. Accessed From: https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031816-044628