Those who start school with asthma more likely to lag in reading at the end of the school year
TUESDAY, Dec. 7 (HealthDay News) -- Children who enter school with asthma may be more likely to have low reading achievement after 12 months, according to research published in the December issue of Chest.
Kathleen A. Liberty, Ph.D., of the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, and colleagues analyzed data from 298 first-graders, 55 of whom had current asthma, based on parent and physician report. Children's reading and math achievement was measured at school entry and at 12 months.
The researchers found that the students who started school with asthma were significantly more likely to be at least six months behind other children in reading words and books at the end of the year. However, they weren't more likely to be behind in math. Students' achievement wasn't related to the severity of their asthma. The condition predicted achievement at the end of the year independent of high absenteeism, minority status, male gender, single-parent family, poor academic skills, and low socioeconomic status.
"School absence is the factor identified as most likely to affect the achievement of children with asthma, although high absenteeism has not always been reported for children with asthma and our study did not find an association between high absence and low achievement in children with asthma. Additionally, although asthma severity and poor readiness in children with asthma have been given as possible explanations for low achievement, these explanations were not supported in our study," the authors write.
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