Education and health knowledge: Evidence from UK compulsory schooling reform

Abstract

This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. For causal identification we use increases in the UK minimum school leaving age in 1947 (from 14 to 15) and 1972 (from 15 to 16) to provide exogenous variation in education. These reforms predominantly induced adolescents who would have left school to stay for one additionally mandated year. OLS estimates suggest that education significantly increases health knowledge, with a one-year increase in schooling increasing the health knowledge index by 15% of a standard deviation. In contrast, estimates from instrumental-variable models show that increased schooling due to the education reforms did not significantly affect health knowledge. This main result is robust to numerous specification tests and alternative formulations of the health knowledge index. Further research is required to determine whether there is also no causal link between higher levels of education -such as post-school qualifications -and health knowledge. Permanent repository link

The health knowledge mechanism: evidence on the link between education and health lifestyle in the Philippines

“…The findings stand in stark contrast to the previous literature, which either suggests that education may not have a strong effect on knowledge [3,37], or that knowledge only plays a minor role in the education-health lifestyle relationship [14,41,48].…”

“…They find only weak evidence for education effects on knowledge, concluding that "allocative efficiency is not likely to be the main reason for why education improves health" (p. 811). Similarly, [37], who use data of the UK Health and Lifestyle Survey and compulsory schooling reforms in 1947, do not find education to have a positive effect on knowledge, further challenging the validity of the allocative efficiency argument.…”

Educational attainment and adult health: Under what conditions is the association causal?

“…Unlike the papers above which examine the effects of compulsory schooling on health and mortality outcomes, the paper by Johnston et al (2015) investigates the effects on health knowledge. Health knowledge is generally considered to be an important pathway through which education improves health, yet few studies have examined whether education causally influences this knowledge.…”

“…The Johnston et al (2015) paper is not the first study to report null effects of education on health-related outcomes when using compulsory schooling laws as an instrument. Indeed, results from studies of the United States and Europe using this approach are quite mixed.…”

Comprehensive evaluation of male health in four communities in rural Honduras

“…A study by Johnston et al investigated the relationship between education obtained and health knowledge and found that the level of education significantly impacts health understanding. According to their estimates, a one-year increase in schooling can increase health knowledge by 15% (Johnston et al, 2015). As the men in the communities become more educated and the average education level increases, so will the health literacy in the communities.…”