Healthy habits have a significant impact on our overall health. Unhealthy habits are the culprit for preventable and premature diseases. But the key question is, why do some people adopt healthy habits while others don’t?
Health economists have it that educated people are more likely to adopt healthier lifestyles. Studies show that better-educated people invest heavily in a healthy lifestyle.
People who have attended higher learning institutions are less likely to abuse alcohol, smoke, and eat healthier foods, exercise more, and go for regular health checks compared to the average population.
The research can be supported for various reasons. For example, students who have adopted healthier lifestyles are more likely to be attentive when acquiring knowledge; thus, they tend to perform exemplary in their academics.
New research
Research conducted recently still shows that there is a great relationship between education and health habits.
A renowned health economist and his colleague conducted research to address this topic. They implemented an econometric technique to identify the effects of education on a wide range of health behaviors. The target population was Australians aged 22 to 65 years. The experts relied on school reforms to determine the minimum school leaving age, which was important in the study.
The research found that staying in school longer for a year has a considerable impact on health habits, exercise, diet, and whether to adopt risky health behaviors later in life.
In addition, the results show that staying in school for an additional year has more positive effects on women than men in Australia. On the contrary, the UK and German men experience more positive effects of staying an additional year in school than women.
Potential mechanism
Numerous theories show that advanced education leads to improved health behaviors. One theory is based on the fact that individual conscientiousness increases with the level of education. People with higher education tend to be in control of their life more than the general population.
The perception is that more educated people may differ in their psychological ability to initiate behavior changes. This reflects psychological theories that claim that for an individual to make behavioral changes, they must be willing to change both their lifestyle and how they feel about it.
Policy implications
The findings of all the theories show that an increase in education expenditure can enhance a nation’s health. If the government increases expenditure on education, the results will be a decreased number of patients. This finding is based on the fact that preventable diseases are directly related to health behaviors.
While the researchers demonstrated the essential effect of education on the health behaviors of victims of changes in compulsory schooling laws in Australia, the research also found a huge difference in education effects among different age groups.
The researchers recommended that further research to investigate how early home environments and predetermined characteristics can influence the causal effect of education on healthy habits should be conducted. Bottom-line, educators should assist in enhancing personality traits that are directly associated with healthy habits.
