Long-term school outcomes for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a population-based perspective.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to compare long-term school outcomes (academic achievement in reading, absenteeism, grade retention, and school dropout) for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) versus those without AD/HD.


METHODS
Subjects included 370 children with research-identified AD/HD from a 1976-1982 population-based birth cohort (N = 5718) and 740 non-AD/HD control subjects from the same birth cohort, matched by gender and age. All subjects were retrospectively followed from birth until a median age of 18.4 years (AD/HD cases) or 18.3 years (non-AD/HD controls). The complete school record for each subject was reviewed to obtain information on reading achievement (last available California Achievement Test reading score), absenteeism (number/percentage of school days absent at each grade level), grade retention (having to repeat an entire grade in the subsequent school year), and school dropout (failure to graduate from high school).


RESULTS
Median reading achievement scores at age 12.8 years (expressed as a national percentile) were significantly different for AD/HD cases and non-AD/HD controls (45 vs 73). Results were similar for both boys and girls with AD/HD. Median percentage of days absent was statistically significantly higher for children with AD/HD versus those without AD/HD, although the difference was relatively small in absolute number of days absent. Subjects with AD/HD were three times more likely to be retained a grade. Similarly, subjects with AD/HD were 2.7 times more likely to drop out before high school graduation (22.9%) than non-AD/HD controls (10.0%).


CONCLUSIONS
The results of this population-based study clearly demonstrate the association between AD/HD and poor long-term school outcomes.
Barbaresi
William J
WJ
Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN 55905, USA. barbaresi.william@mayo.edu
Katusic
Slavica K
SK
Colligan
Robert C
RC
Weaver
Amy L
AL
Jacobsen
Steven J
SJ
D000041:Absenteeism; D000124:Achievement; D000293:Adolescent; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011159:Population Surveillance; D011932:Reading; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013332:Student Dropouts / Q000706:statistics & numerical data