Educational attainment has a major influence on people’s health, according to a new research report released Thursday by the Quebec Observatory on Inequality. The fewer school dropouts there are in Quebec, the healthier the population is likely to be.
In other words, education plays a decisive role in determining health. Improving Quebec’s education system would also give the healthcare system a boost.
The report indicates that people with low levels of education are more often affected by chronic diseases and psychological disorders. They also live, on average, shorter lives than those who have pursued longer studies.
“It’s clear that there are more chronic diseases, morbidity, and depression among people with low levels of education. Dementia also occurs earlier because a low level of education implies a whole series of more difficult living conditions. So, people who dropped out (of school) and won’t have a job will have children who go to school with very little cultural and socioeconomic capital. They will be among those who are not on an equal footing,” explains François Fournier, a researcher at the Observatory and author of the study.
In 2020-2021, in Quebec, 21.8 per cent of students from disadvantaged backgrounds left school without a diploma or qualification, compared to an average of 15 per cent across all profiles.
Obviously, illness affects all social classes, but the education factor exposes people with less schooling to more health problems.
“Of course, there are always exceptions to all of this, but broadly speaking, the data is very clear. The employment rate without a high school diploma is about 40 per cent, with a CEGEP diploma it’s 66 per cent, and with a bachelor’s degree it’s 73 per cent. The average after-tax income is $31,000 for those with no diploma, $45,000 for CEGEP graduates, and $62,000 for university graduates. Two-thirds of social assistance recipients had no diploma in 2024,” explains Fournier.
“All this to say that this is the first dimension we wanted to draw attention to because it means that education is a public health issue insofar as if your education system does not produce or has difficulty producing a high success rate, there are problems. There are people who fall through the cracks of the social safety net,” Fournier says.
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This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
