Education and Health: A Cross-Cultural Comparison among Muslim, Hindu and Santal Communities in Rajshahi District

Abstract

Young adult men across the ethnic groups, unlike young adult women, suffer from physical and mental health problems. Social survey approach which includes wider social, economic, political, religious, cultural and environmental factors to analyze and compare public physical and mental health across age, sex, social class, ethnicity, religion, and region is very popular. Of the social factors, education shapes health in many pathways, including physiological process, socioeconomic status, sociodemographic status, life style, and psychosocial process. Ross and Mirowsky’s (1999, 2003) human capital theory of learned effectiveness and research has shown that lower educational attainment is linked to poorer subjective physical health, mediating through lower socioeconomic, higher socio-demographic pressure, and unhealthy life style among general population. Although relationship of lower education to poorer SPH among the general people and minority ethnic groups in abroad was remarkable, mediating through socioeconomic status, sociodemographic factors, and life style, there is no particular social survey study on how socioeconomic status, demographic factor, and lifestyle links between education and subjective physical health among Muslim, Hindu and Santal Men in rural Bangladesh. The main aim of the study, however, is to examine and compare the relationships between level of formal education and subjective physical health status, mediating through socioeconomic status (occupation, income & family property), sociodemographic status (age structure, marriage & family pattern), and lifestyle (sense of personal control, timing of meal, bathing, smoking) between Muslim, Hindu and Santal adult Men in Godagari, Rajshahi district. Based on human capital theory of learned effectiveness by Mirowsky and Ross (1999, 2003) we hypothesized that lower educational attainment of Santal adult men than the Hindu and Muslim young adult men is significantly associated with their poorer SPH, mediating through their lower socioeconomic attainment, higher demographic pressure, and unhealthier lifestyle in Godagari, Rajshahi district, Bangladesh.In so doing, 550 young adult men of the ethnic groups whose ages 20-50 years were randomly selected. The findings of the study suggested that lower level of educational attainment was associated with very poor subjective physical health among the Santal men than the Hindu and Muslim men. After adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic and lifestyle, secondary and above educational category was positively related to very poor and poor health outcomes in the Hindu and Muslim men than in the Santal men. These findings may contribute to attain subjective feelings about educational and sociodemographic discrimination of the ethnic group, Hindu that may enhance their subjective physical health status attainment and social well-being. These findings on the relationship of education to health may also promote social progress, social change, and social policy development among the ethnic communities in rural Bangladesh.