Education is an important determinant of health. Educational outcomes are closely linked to socioeconomic status and health disparities. Specifically, educational attainment is a key determinant of both morbidity and mortality. Children and youth spend a large proportion of their time in a school, making this environment an important place for shaping health outcomes. While environmental exposures can be harmful to the health of all individuals, children and young adults are particularly susceptible to adverse outcomes as a result of exposures to environmental contaminants at school.
In an effort to further our understanding of how education and health are socioeconomically patterned, we are working with school-level standardized assessment results from Ontario’s Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO). EQAO data have been linked to schools lead testing data and area-level socioeconomic status from the Ontario Marginalization Index. We anticipate that a data rigorous approach can both provide robust answers to public health questions as well as policy relevant insights about education and health.
To learn more about our work in this area, please see the following resources:
- Buajitti E., Rosella, L.C., Lewis J. A., Fazio X. Association between lead in school drinking water systems and educational outcomes in Ontario, Canada. Annals of Epidemiology, 2020. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annepidem.2020.09.011
Some of our current projects include:
- Lewis J. A., Buajitti E., Rosella L., Fazio X. Socioeconomic Gradients in Primary School EQAO Assessment Results. [In progress]