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income, wealth or social class. Education is considered as a core SES dimension as it serves as precursorto other health determinants such as income and occupational status. Extensive evidence points out that avariety of health outcomes are influenced by education. Overall, people with higher educationalattainment tend to be healthier than people with lower education. The effect has been attributed to highergeneral and health literacy and its application in informed decisions and actions they take towardshealthier lifestyle behaviors. Health condition surveys support the claim for self-rated health, physicalimpairment and mental and physical well-being. Additionally, it is observed that the higher the educationalgrade obtained, lesser are the rates of all-cause mortality, life expectancy and morbidity. This positiveinfluence of education on health does not diminish with years; on the contrary it accumulates and amplifiesduring the life span.Education affects individual health through both direct and indirect pathways. Education ispositively associated with health outcomes even after controlling for other health determinants suggestingan independent effect on health. As learned skill, knowledge and effectiveness, education directlyimproves health; increases the sense of personal control, and enhances social, psychological resourcesand provides valuable tools for their proper use.Alternatively, education strongly correlates with other indicators of socioeconomic status and astheir precursor in occurring early in life, it is very likely to determine future occupational and economicalprospects for an individual. Educated individuals are likely to have better opportunities for full-time jobs,stable employment contracts, jobs over which they have control and where creativity and autonomy areencouraged. All of these factors are seen to improve health. Furthermore, these employmentopportunities are accompanied by increases in income. Income provides to individuals access to materialresources, health care services among others, to fulfill the basic needs, thus improving individual health.Section 5. Interventions in Early ChildhoodThe period during which brain development is the most rapid and important is in the first 3 to 5years of life. Early life conditions affect the ability to learn and are important predictors of future academicsuccess (Low, 2005). Jimerson et al. (2000) states: “The context from which the child emerges whenentering elementary school provides a critical foundation for subsequent academic success”. Severalstudies have reported a strong relationship between early life conditions and dropping out of high school(Jimerson et al., 2000), later performance in school, adult literacy, health status and mortality (Keating &Hertzman, 1999). Readiness to learn when entering kindergarten has been associated with mathematicalachievement in eighth grade (Fuchs V. R. & Reklis, 1997).There is evidence that readiness to learn for at-risk children in the pre-kindergarten years can beimproved through intervention. Though health effects have not been established, there is suggestiveevidence that programs such as Head Start and the Perry Preschool Project may confer long-termbenefits (Hertzman, 1999). Pre-school enrichment programs have been shown to improve the cognitiveand social capacity of poor children at high risk. One of the first programs to be evaluated, the classicHigh/Scope Perry program, provided evidence that per-school enrichment program improved high schoolgraduation, avoidance of legal and marriage problems, home ownership, and use of social services(Schweinhart, 1993). In the evaluation by the Center for Educational Research at Stanford, Right Start, acompensatory education program, was shown to increase developmental test scores at ages 7, 8, and 9(Case & Griffin, 1991). Recent evaluations of Head Start and Early Head Start, the largest early childhoodintervention programs for low SES children in the U.S., have shown mixed results, but some positiveeffects on learning (Mathematica Policy Research Inc, 2002; McGroder, 1990).The evidence presented in this section corroborates the importance of education to health andprovides justification of why investing in education and evaluating and improving policies related toeducation, have an imperative relevance.E-38