A Cycle You Weren't Aware of

As you are well aware education is a matter that is linked immensely with success; though the presumption of that success only being financially related may actually be inaccurate. There are a few articles that I have reviewed that overlook the ties between health and education. Those with higher incomes typically live longer and healthier lives than those that are less educated and this is a matter that expands for the generations to come.

In an article written by the National Poverty Center explains the way that they were able create a correlation between education in health stating,  "First, Cutler and Lleras- Muney examine individuals’ mortality rates. By matching respondents with death certificates obtained through the National Death Index, they find that individuals with higher levels of education are less likely to die within five years of the interview. An additional four years of education lowers five year mortality by 1.8 percentage points (relative to a base of 11 percent)."

Below you will find an info graph that provides a visual to what is meant when the statement, higher education leads to a healthier life.
                   Photo Accredited to Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

The reason that the health of those with low income is so important is because it is one of the factors that create a dwindling slope. According to Eric Jensen, when a student is ill he or she may not attend school in an attempt to get better and with certain ailments such as hearing loss or asthma, there is an affect on attention, reasoning, learning, and memory. All of which lead to a greater issue in the future. Unfortunately, for most people that are facing these ailments, they do not have access to the resources that are around in order to find a cure or help better treat heir ailments so that they can continue to move forward within life.

It is also important to note the way that diet has an effect on health as well. Unfortunately, we live in a world where a burger is a dollar and a salad is about ten. When people are in poverty they have to choose between missing nutrients and having enough food for the entire family. What happens in this scenario is that the nutrients will just have to be missed and deal with the consequences. That means having a diet that is high in sugar, salt or glucose, all of which has a serious impact on a child's behavior in school as it can either make it seem like the student is disinterested or hyper-active depending on the types of food that the child is eating.

In the article written by Cutler and Lleras- Muney there is a paragraph that runs off the statistics in the way that the correlation between education and health is understood based off of their research. It is stated that, "better educated individuals are less likely to self-report a past diagnosis of an acute or chronic disease, less likely to die from the most common acute and chronic diseases, and are less likely to report anxiety or depression. The magnitude of the relationship between education and health varies across conditions, but it is generally large. More education reduces the risk of heart disease by 2.2 percentage points (relative to a base of 31 percent) and the risk of diabetes by 1.3 percentage points (relative to a base of 7 percent). An additional four more years of schooling lowers the probability of reporting being in fair or poor health by 6 percentage points (the mean is 12 percent), and reduces lost days of work to sickness by 2.3 days each year (relative to 5.2 on average)."

It is clear that there is a correlation between health and education based off of the previous information mentioned. However, one can also assume that the reason for education having such strong ties with health falls back into the fact that those that are in poverty typically cannot afford healthcare, or the time it takes to attend school. It is a never ending cycle that has to come to an end; take note that no matter what area of the cycle you start at education is always the key to breaking the cycle.