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Does More Education Always Lead to Better Health? Evidence from Rural Malaysia

Background. Education is usually associated with improvement in health; there is evidence that this may not be the case if education is not fully utilised at work. This study examines the relationship between education level, occupation, and health outcomes of individuals in rural Malaysia. Results....

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Leeves, Gareth, Soyiri, Ireneous
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4313063/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25685796
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/539212
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author Leeves, Gareth
Soyiri, Ireneous
author_facet Leeves, Gareth
Soyiri, Ireneous
author_sort Leeves, Gareth
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description Background. Education is usually associated with improvement in health; there is evidence that this may not be the case if education is not fully utilised at work. This study examines the relationship between education level, occupation, and health outcomes of individuals in rural Malaysia. Results. The study finds that the incidence of chronic diseases and high blood pressure are higher for tertiary educated individuals in agriculture and construction occupations. This brings these individuals into more frequent contact with the health system. These occupations are marked with generally lower levels of education and contain fewer individuals with higher levels of education. Conclusions. Education is not always associated with better health outcomes. In certain occupations, greater education seems related to increased chronic disease and contact with the health system, which is the case for workers in agriculture in rural Malaysia. Agriculture is the largest sector of employment in rural Malaysia but with relatively few educated individuals. For the maintenance and sustainability of productivity in this key rural industry, health monitoring and job enrichment policies should be encouraged by government agencies to be part of the agenda for employers in these sectors.
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spelling pubmed-43130632015-02-15 Does More Education Always Lead to Better Health? Evidence from Rural Malaysia Leeves, Gareth Soyiri, Ireneous Biomed Res Int Research Article Background. Education is usually associated with improvement in health; there is evidence that this may not be the case if education is not fully utilised at work. This study examines the relationship between education level, occupation, and health outcomes of individuals in rural Malaysia. Results. The study finds that the incidence of chronic diseases and high blood pressure are higher for tertiary educated individuals in agriculture and construction occupations. This brings these individuals into more frequent contact with the health system. These occupations are marked with generally lower levels of education and contain fewer individuals with higher levels of education. Conclusions. Education is not always associated with better health outcomes. In certain occupations, greater education seems related to increased chronic disease and contact with the health system, which is the case for workers in agriculture in rural Malaysia. Agriculture is the largest sector of employment in rural Malaysia but with relatively few educated individuals. For the maintenance and sustainability of productivity in this key rural industry, health monitoring and job enrichment policies should be encouraged by government agencies to be part of the agenda for employers in these sectors. Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2015 2015-01-05 /pmc/articles/PMC4313063/ /pubmed/25685796 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/539212 Text en Copyright © 2015 G. Leeves and I. Soyiri. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Leeves, Gareth
Soyiri, Ireneous
Does More Education Always Lead to Better Health? Evidence from Rural Malaysia
title Does More Education Always Lead to Better Health? Evidence from Rural Malaysia
title_full Does More Education Always Lead to Better Health? Evidence from Rural Malaysia
title_fullStr Does More Education Always Lead to Better Health? Evidence from Rural Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed Does More Education Always Lead to Better Health? Evidence from Rural Malaysia
title_short Does More Education Always Lead to Better Health? Evidence from Rural Malaysia
title_sort does more education always lead to better health? evidence from rural malaysia
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4313063/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25685796
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/539212
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