Jay, Matthew A;
Zylbersztejn, Ania;
Herlitz, Lauren;
Deighton, Jessica;
Gilbert, Ruth;
Blackburn, Ruth;
(2025)
Chronic health conditions and school absence, exclusions, and non-enrolment: a cohort study using the Education and Child Health Insights from Linked Data database.
Journal of Public Health
, Article fdaf064. 10.1093/pubmed/fdaf064.
(In press).
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: Policies to reduce school absence can place a burden on children with chronic health conditions (CHCs). Although estimates suggest > 25% of children in England have a CHC before age 16, there is limited evidence on extent of absence, exclusion, and non-enrolment from school among children with CHCs. METHODS: We used all-of-England inpatient data (Hospital Episode Statistics) to identify groups of adolescents with CHCs from age 5 to 15. Cohorts were born in 2000/01 to 2002/03. Data were linked to England's National Pupil Database for secondary school (age 11 to 16) persistent absence (>1 month missed/year), exclusion, and non-enrolment to examine rates of each outcome by CHC groups. RESULTS: Of 1 456 361 children, 12.5% had a CHC from age 5 to 11, and 18.9% to age 16. Rates of persistent absence were higher among children with CHCs than unexposed peers (e.g. 25.9% compared to 14.7% aged 15/16), especially among those with mental health presentations (32.1%). Increased rates were found for exclusion and non-enrolment for children with CHCs. The percentage of absence recorded as health-related was lowest among children with externalizing presentations. CONCLUSIONS: Approaches to improve school attendance should consider needs of children with CHCs, ensuring adequate support.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Chronic health conditions and school absence, exclusions, and non-enrolment: a cohort study using the Education and Child Health Insights from Linked Data database |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1093/pubmed/fdaf064 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdaf064 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Faculty of Public Health. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Keywords: | Chronic disease, education, employment and skills, epidemiology |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences 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/10209788 |
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