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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Sheniz A. Moonie, MS¹, David A. Sterling, PhD, CIH², Larry Figgs, PhD, MPH², and Mario Castro, MD, MPH³. (1) Office of Epidemiology, Clark County Health District, PO Box 3902, Las Vegas, NV 89127, (2) School of Public Health, Saint Louis University, 3545 Lafayette Avenue, Suite 300, St. Louis, MO 63104, 314-977-8123, sterling@slu.edu, (3) Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 S. Euclid Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63110-1093

It is well documented that children with asthma experience more absenteeism from school compared with healthy children. Excessive absenteeism is related to lower student grades, psychological, social and educational adjustment. Less is known about the relationship between the presence of asthma and academic achievement in school-aged children. Since students with asthma miss more days from school, this may negatively impact their academic achievement. The goal of this study is to investigate the relationships between absenteeism, presence of asthma, and asthma severity level with standardized test level performance in a predominantly African-American urban school district. A cross-sectional analysis was conducted of 3,812 students (ages 8-17 years) who took the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) standardized test during the 2002-2003 academic year. After adjustment for covariates, a significant inverse relationship was found between absenteeism and test level performance (p<.0001). There was no difference in test level achievement between those with and without asthma (p>0.05). Those with persistent asthma showed an increased likelihood of scoring lower compared to those with mild intermittent asthma [aOR=1.93 (95% CI 0.93-4.01), p=0.08]. A negative impact of absenteeism on standardized test level achievement was demonstrated. Children with asthma overall perform the same academically as well children. However, those with persistent asthma show a trend of performing worse and have more absence days compared with other students.

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