Critical review of the evidence for the connection between education and health: A guide for exploration of the causal pathways

The association between education and health is one of the most robust empiric findings over the past several decades. At each higher level of education, prevalence of most types of chronic disease decreases. However, understanding of the mechanisms through which education is related to chronic disease is limited. Specifically, the literature provides little evidence of the explanatory factors in the pathways linking education and health. Better scientific understanding of the pathways through which education influences health may help to explain the well-documented association between socioeconomic position (SEP) and health and could lead to improved intervention strategies for health disparities. We review the potential pathways through which education may influence health and the evidence that explicitly tests these hypothesized pathways and provide direction for future research in this field.