Education As a Health Determinant

Education and its links to health

MHIRC has explored the role of educating boys and links to male health throughout the life course.  While it is well-recognised that education is important, the link between education and health outcomes is relatively less explored.

It is true that fewer boys complete secondary and tertiary education than girls but what MHIRC sees as being important is that boys can achieve an education that enables them to reach a standard that supports their health in the life context.

Boys and girls do learn differently, so implementing practices to better engage boys in education can pay dividends in health throughout life.

Education is a recognised social determinant of health and directly influences the other factors later in life that contribute to health such as being able to gain solid employment, accessing stable housing and being able to make healthy food choices.

MHIRC sees similarities between the types of practices that engage boys in their education and practices that engage men in health. Collectively, we need to understand:

• how boys engage with learning
• how they absorb information
• how their learning is impacted by their physiologies
• communications structures that encourage them to learn
• how male role models (dads, teachers, relatives, etc) can influence better learning outcomes.

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