Chronic Illnesses in Canadian Children: What is the Effect of Illness on Academic Achievement, and Anxiety and Emotional Disorders?

Background: Survival rates of children with a chronic illness is at an all-time high. Up to 98% of children suffering from a chronic illness, which may have been considered fatal in the past, now reach early adulthood. It is estimated that as many as 30% of school-aged children are affected by a chronic illness. For this population of children, the prevalence of educational and psychological problems is nearly double in comparison with the general population.

Methods: This study investigated the educational and psychological effects of childhood chronic illness among 1512 Canadian children (ages 10-15 years). This was a retrospective analysis using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, taking a cross-sectional look at the relationships between childhood chronic illnesses, performance on a Mathematics Computation Exercise (MCE) and ratings on an Anxiety and Emotional Disorder (AED) scale.

Results: When AED ratings and educational handicaps were controlled for, children identified with chronic illnesses still had weaker performance on the MCE. Chronic illness did not appear to have a relationship with children's AED ratings. The regression analysis indicated that community type and illness were the strongest predictors of MCE scores.

Conclusions: The core research implications of this study concern measurement issues that need to be addressed in future large-scale studies. Clinical implications of this research concern the need for co-ordinated services between the home, hospital and school settings so that services and programmes focus on the ecology of the child who is ill.