Education is the key to better health

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Education is the key to better health

By YesPakistan.com Staff Writer

When it comes to improving the health of individuals in developing nations, many strategies are suggested. Perhaps more doctors are the key? Or increased income? Or both?

But based on research worldwide, the solution is really a simple one: education. The more educated an individual is, the better their health will be. And when it comes to women, the better educated they are, the better health their children will be in.

Studies in countries worldwide conducted by the World Bank in 1997 revealed that a mother's schooling of one to three years is connected to a 20 percent decline in the risk of childhood death.

Many deaths of infants could have been avoided if mothers had been better educated. A World Bank simulation study indicates that a doubling of female secondary enrolments in 1975 (from 19 percent to 38 percent) would have reduced the infant mortality rate by 64 percent.

In addition, what is surprising is how crucial education is in this equation, since other ways of reducing the infant mortality rate would have been less effective. If the number of doctors had been doubled, this would have reduced the infant mortality rate by only five percent. Similarly, doubling parents' per capita income would have decreased the infant mortality rate by only six percent (Subbarao and Rancy, 1995).

While having both parents educated is a strong indicator of a reduced infant mortality rate (if both parents are literate it can lessen the infant mortality rate by 27,000 according to Scultz 1988), the more educated a mother is, her child's chances of survival are better.

For example, in a district-level study in India, it was estimated that an increase in the female literacy rate from 22 percent to 75 percent reduced the predicted value of the under-five mortality rate for children from 156 per 1,000 to 110 per 1,000. However, a similar increase in the male literacy rate would result in a reduction of the rate to no more than 141 per 1,000.

In addition, in urban India, the child mortality rate of children born to educated mothers is 34 per thousand. However, it increases to over twice that, 82 per 1,000, when mothers have no schooling.

Similar findings in Sri Lanka make the connection between education and health as well. There, even before the country's independence in 1948, the adult literacy rate had already reached 60 percent. This is why when health services expanded immediately after independence, the country's life expectancy rate boomed within ten years, thus showing the connection between education and health improvements.

One factor that is important to consider is that educated parents are more likely to get their children immunized for diseases, which boosts their survival rate. Virtually all empirical studies suggest that child immunization rates increase (Chochrane et al 1980 and 1988, Colclough 1993) and infant mortality drops sharply as parents' education increases, especially the education of mothers.

Education doesn't just influence survival though. The general health of a child is positively affected when his or her mother is educated.

For example, women who have completed primary school have 20 percent less under-nutrition among their children than illiterate mothers (Bhargava and Osmani 1996).

There are a number of reasons for this. Education, especially of women, in practical terms, translates into a parent's greater ability to manage basic child care, raise the nutritional content of diets, diagnose diseases more effectively and improve elementary health care.

Education may also convince family members of the importance of spending more money on food and medical care versus drinking and gambling, which often affect many poor communities.

Education is clearly a passport to better health worldwide. Governments, NGOs and civil society organizations must work together to implement measures to provide better education not only for the benefit of the economy or to improve the standard of living of individuals. Rather, education must be emphasized to save the lives of thousands of children worldwide.

Date/Time Last Modified: 6/18/2002 8:07:54 AM