The health effects of education: a meta-analysis.
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 approximately 0.036. Some tentative calculations suggest that the cost-benefit ratio of investments in education on health is highly positive.


CONCLUSIONS
For public policy this implies that a more integrated approach to education and health policies should be taken.
Furnée
Carina A
CA
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, BEOZ, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands. c.furnee@beoz.unimaas.nl
Groot
Wim
W
van den Brink
Henriëtte Maassen
HM
D000328:Adult; D004493:Education / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011640:Public Policy; D019057:Quality-Adjusted Life Years