The Relationship Between Health Efficacy, Educational Attainment, and Well-Being Among 30 Nations

Data from 30 nations on the relationship between educational performance in reading, mathematical, and scientific literacy as assessed in the PISA survey and the health performance indicators of the World Health report are analyzed. Health level was unrelated to any of the three educational performance variables, but disability-related life expectancy was significantly related to reading literacy and educational attainment. Specifically, mathematical and reading literacy were related to such health care indicators as goal level, goal distribution, fairness, and overall goals. In addition, correlational analysis was conducted between socioeconomic variables and educational attainment for these nations; GDP and economic growth were very weakly related to educational performance. On the other hand, inflation and the human development index (HDI) were significantly related to all three literacy scores. HDI and economic growth emerged as the strongest predictors of health performance rating of a nation. Finally, the association between subjective well-being (happiness) and educational performance was explored. Happiness was consistently related to the three literacy scores, the magnitude of the association being highest for reading literacy. The implications of these findings for educational and health programs were discussed.