Open AccessAdvancing health equity by addressing social determinants of health: Using health data to improve educational outcomes
Author(s) -
Mary Jo Rattermann,
Azure Angelov,
Tommy Reddicks,
Jess Monk
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0247909
Subject(s) - poverty , psychological intervention , health equity , social determinants of health , equity (law) , health care , medicine , academic achievement , environmental health , psychology , public health , nursing , economic growth , developmental psychology , political science , law , economics
Data from two social determinants of health—access to health care and access to a quality education—are combined to examine the impact of health on student achievement. Data from a high poverty, high performing K-8 school revealed a significant negative correlation between the number of visits to a school-based nurse and standardized academic assessments. Fixed effect regression confirmed the effect of total number of visits to the school-based nurse on performance on standardized assessments, and also revealed that two types of visits, neurological and gastrointestinal, were predictive of student performance. Taken together, these results suggest that when students are suffering from ill health their academic performance is negatively impacted. Implications for improving health equity through data-driven educational interventions are discussed.