Education: The Paramount Influence on Health in the U.S

In today’s society it is broadly acknowledged that health issues are influenced by various social factors. Despite biological characteristics, the physical environment an individual lives in, and many more causes of health outcomes, education can deeply influence an individual 's well being. With that being said, education can shape many important factors in a person 's life, therefore it is the most important influence on health in the contemporary U.S.
In view of social-class affecting health, the principle is straightforward. As an individual goes up the social-class ladder, health improves. As an individual goes down the ladder, health worsens (Henslin, 2016, p. 276). That being the case, social class has many factors that affect health.

In school people learn basic life skills. For example, how to read, write, analyze, solve problems, work with others, communicate, and develop ideas. These skills and abilities people learned in school help them control their own personal lives as well. Education goes beyond succeeding in school and getting a career, it builds personal growth that one can keep forever (Mirowsky and Ross, 2015, p. 299). However, not everyone has equal rights to certain levels of education. In the past, women were not able to even attend college with men. Although times have drastically changed, women are still less likely to earn degrees than men (Henslin, 2016, p. 314). Women are clearly at the disadvantage, which is why majority of people suffering from poverty are single mothers. Despite the inequality between gender, people are at an even bigger disadvantage when it comes to education and health care if they are African American or Hispanic. As stated in the textbook, African American mothers are almost three times as likely to die as white mothers, while their babies are more than twice as likely to die during their first year of life. This is no coincidence, it is due to social conditions such as education, social class, and medical care (Henslin, 2016, p.

Health behaviors are an important link between health and education. For example, cigarette smoking remains one of the leading preventable causes of premature death in the United States. Compared to the less educated, the more educated are less likely to be smokers or abuse alcohol (Ho and Fenelon, 2015, p. 56). According to the textbook, alcohol is the standard recreational drug of Americans (Henslin, 2016, p. 577). Alcohol is a very dangerous beverage and can cause much harm the human body. It scars the liver, increase risks of cancer, damages the heart, and can raise the likelihood of giving birth to a child with birth defects. Alcohol also kills about 32,000 Americans die in vehicle accidents every year and ⅓ of them happen to be drunk (Henslin, 2016, p. 578). With that being said, alcohol and cigarettes are two very dangerous habits that can threaten one’s health. Not having an education can lead an individual to abusing these substances with the consequence of health issues or even