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The European Journal of Public Health Advance Access published online on April 23, 2008
The European Journal of Public Health, doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckn028
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. All rights reserved.

The health effects of education: a meta-analysis

Carina A. Furnée1, Wim Groot1 and Henriëtte Maassen van den Brink2

1 Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, BEOZ, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands
2 Faculty of Economics and Business, General Economics, University of Amsterdam, Roetersstraat 11, 1018 WB Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Correspondence: Carina A. Furnée, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, BEOZ, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands, tel: +31 43 388 1832, fax: +31 43 367 0960, e-mail: c.furnee{at}beoz.unimaas.nl

Received November 15, 2007 , accepted March 27, 2008

Background: There is an abundance of empirical evidence, mainly from the epidemiological and social science literature, on the relation between education and health. Until now a meta-analysis of the relation between education and health was not available. This article presents a meta-analysis of studies that use self- reported health as an outcome variable to quantify the effect of education on health. Methods: Meta-analysis using a random and a fixed-effects model to quantify the marginal effect of education on self-reported health. Results: The results of the meta-analysis show that the quality adjusted life years weight (QALYweight) of a year of education is ~0.036. Some tentative calculations suggest that the cost-benefit ratio of investments in education on health is highly positive. Conclusion: For public policy this implies that a more integrated approach to education and health policies should be taken.

Keywords: education, meta-analysis, self-reported health


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