Hospitalisation affects academic performance
Education interrupted by injury or chronic asthma can have a cumulative effect that ultimately limits later employment opportunities
A Macquarie University study has found children who are affected by injury or illness can continue to have poorer educational outcomes than their peers for many years – and can even be less likely to complete high school.
Associate Professor Rebecca Mitchell, of the Australian Institute of Health Innovation at Macquarie University, said interrupted education could have a cumulative effect, resulting in children not completing high school and potentially not undertaking further tertiary studies, thereby limiting later employment opportunities.
Mitchell and her team used linked birth, health and education records in NSW from 2005 to 2018 to compare NAPLAN assessment tests and high school completion for young people aged 18 and under who had been hospitalised for an injury to those of their peers.
To create the peer comparison group, each injured young person was matched against a randomly selected peer of the same age and gender from the same postcode, but who had not been hospitalised for an injury.
The team then looked at the educational outcomes when children were affected by injury, or illnesses including asthma, Type 1 diabetes, and mental health disorders.
Mitchell said the findings had been surprising.
INJURY
Being hospitalised for any type of injury left young people with an average 12 per cent higher risk of not achieving the national minimum standard (NMS) on their NAPLAN test in numeracy, and a 9 per cent risk when it came to reading.
Read an interview with Associate Professor Mitchell in The Lighthouse
ASTHMA
Both boys and girls who have spent time in hospital for asthma are less likely than their peers to finish Year 12.
Read an interview with Associate Professor Mitchell in The Lighthouse
Read the journal articles:
Mitchell, RJ, McMaugh, A, Homaira, N, Lystad, RP, Badgery-Parker, T, Cameron, CM. The impact of childhood asthma on academic performance: A matched population-based cohort study. Clin Exp Allergy. 2021; 00: 1– 11. https://doi.org/10.1111/cea.14022
Mitchell, RJ, Cameron, CM, McMaugh, A, Lystad, RP, Badgery-Parker, T, Ryder, T. The impact of childhood injury and injury severity on school performance and high school completion in Australia: a matched population-based retrospective cohort study. BMC Pediatr 21, 426 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-021-02891-x
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Centre for Healthcare Resilience and Implementation Science
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