In 2010, more than one in four (27%) adults who lacked a high school education reported being unable to see a doctor due to cost, compared to less than one in five (18%) high school graduates and less than one in 10 (8%) college graduates. Lower income and lack of adequate insurance coverage are barriers to meeting health care needs. Over time, the insured rate has decreased for Americans without a high school education (see Figure 4). People living in households with higher incomes-who tend to have more education-are more likely to be covered by health insurance (see Figure 3). The Health Benefits of Education Income and ResourcesĮconomic hardships can harm health and family relationships, 8 as well as making it more difficult to afford household expenses, from utility bills to medical costs. These community researchers, members of our partnership, collaborate regularly with the Center on Society and Health’s research and policy activities to help us more fully understand the “real life” connections between community life and health outcomes. This issue brief, created with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, provides an overview of what research shows about the links between education and health alongside the perspectives of residents of a disadvantaged urban community in Richmond, Virginia. Our community research team noted that early childhood education and youth development are also important to the relationship between education and health. It’s not just the diploma: education is important in building knowledge and developing literacy, thinking and problem-solving skills, and character traits. Research has focused on the number of years of school students complete, largely because there are fewer data available on other aspects of education that are also important. 3 The widening of the gap has occurred across the country 4 and is discussed in more detail in Issue Brief #1. The probability of having major chronic conditions also increased more among the least educated. African-Americans experienced a comparable widening in the health gap by education during this time period.
2 Between 19, the gap between these two groups grew from 23 percentage points to 36 percentage points among non-Hispanic whites age 40 to 64. Now more than ever, people who have not graduated high school are more likely to report being in fair or poor health compared to college graduates. Recent data show that the association between education and health has grown dramatically in the last four decades. The relationship between education and health has existed for generations, despite dramatic improvements in medical care and public health.
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