Baranyi, Gergő;
Harron, Katie;
Fitzsimons, Emla;
(2025)
Birth weight and school absences and attainment: a longitudinal linked cohort study of compulsory schooling in England.
Archives of Disease in Childhood (ADC)
10.1136/archdischild-2025-328611.
(In press).
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Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To explore how birth weight and size-for-gestation may contribute to school absences and educational attainment and whether there are different associations across sex and income groups. DESIGN: Longitudinal linked cohort study. METHODS: Data were drawn from the Millennium Cohort Study, a nationally representative cohort of children born in 2000-2001; percentage of authorised and unauthorised absences from Year 1 to Year 11, and Key Stage test scores at ages 7, 11 and 16 in English and Maths were linked from the National Pupil Database. Birth outcomes and covariates were derived from the 9-month survey, and linear regressions with complex survey weights were fitted. RESULTS: Being born small-for-gestational-age (vs average-for-gestational-age) was associated with an increase of 0.47%, 0.55% and 0.40% in authorised absences in Years 1, 3 and 4 (n=6659) and with a reduction of 0.16-0.26 SD in all English and Maths test scores (n=6204). Similar associations were found for birth weight. After adjusting for prior test scores, English (b=0.07) and Maths (b=0.05) performance at age 11 remained associated with birth weight. Socioeconomic status modified the associations: there were larger disparities in test scores among higher-income families, suggesting that higher income did not compensate for being born small-for-gestational-age. CONCLUSION: Children born smaller missed slightly more classes (~1 day per year) during primary school and had lower English and Maths performance across compulsory education. Exploring specific health conditions and understanding how education and health systems can work together to support children may help to reduce the burden.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Birth weight and school absences and attainment: a longitudinal linked cohort study of compulsory schooling in England |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1136/archdischild-2025-328611 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2025-328611 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2025. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ Group. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: | Child Health, Epidemiology, Infant Development |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health > Population, Policy and Practice Dept |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10208231 |
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