Education and health and wellbeing are intrinsically linked. The evidence behind the importance of education as a determinant of health is amongst the most compelling. Education is strongly associated with life expectancy, morbidity, health behaviours, and educational attainment plays an important role in health by shaping opportunities, employment, and income. In this issue of The Lancet Public Health, two research Articles emphasise the lifelong impact of education on health. The study by Yu-Tzu Wu and colleagues shows that differences in education and wealth established earlier in life were strongly associated with disparities in healthy ageing across a large, multi country cohort of older people. The study by Marty Parker and colleagues looked at healthy working life expectancy at age 50 years in England and reports inequalities by level of educational attainment and occupation.
Education shapes lives—it is key to lifting people out of poverty and reducing socioeconomic and political inequalities. Today—as the world is shaken by the COVID-19 pandemic and the long-overdue recognition of structural racism—the centrality of education and schools to societies has become much clearer. (author abstract)