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This research uses the National Child Development Study to investigate the effects of adult learning upon 12 outcomes that act as proxies for health and social capital. To minimise selection bias we consider changes in outcomes rather than levels. We find that adult learning plays an important role in contributing to the small shifts in attitudes and behaviours that take place during mid-adulthood. The results hold as controls are added for demographic, educational and other background factors, as well as for changes in life circumstances during mid-adulthood. It is therefore very likely that there are substantive and genuine effects of adult learning. However, we do not suggest a purely one-way causal relationship. Evidence from additional analyses suggests rather that participation in adult learning is a very important element in positive cycles of development and progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evidence for positive correlations between years of education and health status is consistent. The patterns of causalities underlying these correlations are likely to be complex, but here the focus is upon one direction of causality; namely how education makes us healthy. If education has the potential to improve health outcomes, then policy-makers and practitioners should understand the interrelated processes involved. As a first step towards this understanding, I suggest a typology of intermediate factors linking education to health outcomes, falling under four headings; economic factors, access to health services, health-related practices, and coping with stress. Although the development of the typology was the purpose of the research, the process of doing so led to the identification of a number of policy-relevant issues or themes that apply to all groups of intermediate factors: (1) immediate psychosocial outcomes of learning play a fundamental role in generating the behaviours, skills and personal attributes that have lasting effects upon health; (2) health benefits of education that apply to individuals do not always apply to communities; (3) health benefits of education depend upon the nature of the learning experienced; and (4) they also depend upon the social and economic structures in which the learner is situated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reviews of the evidence conclude that correlations exist between measures of education and physical health and that a substantial element of this correlation results from the effects of learning upon health. Closer examination reveals that the correlations between education and health change across levels of education, and depend upon when during the life course education is experienced, the type of health condition and the national context. The purpose of this paper is to investigate these variations with a view to developing fuller understanding of the mechanisms through which learning affects physical and psychological health. Such an understanding throws light upon the importance of context in relation to the impacts of education upon health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]