The impact of school building conditions on student absenteeism in Upstate New York.
OBJECTIVE
We investigated Upstate New York school building conditions and examined the associations between school absenteeism and building condition problems.


METHODS
We merged data from the 2005 Building Condition Survey of Upstate New York schools with 2005 New York State Education Department student absenteeism data at the individual school level and evaluated associations between building conditions and absenteeism at or above the 90th percentile.


RESULTS
After adjustment for confounders, student absenteeism was associated with visible mold (odds ratio [OR]=2.22; 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.34, 3.68), humidity (OR=3.07; 95% CI=1.37, 6.89), poor ventilation (OR=3.10; 95% CI=1.79, 5.37), vermin (OR=2.23; 95% CI=1.32, 3.76), 6 or more individual building condition problems (OR=2.97; 95% CI=1.84, 4.79), and building system or structural problems related to these conditions. Schools in lower socioeconomic districts and schools attended by younger students showed the strongest associations between poor building conditions and absenteeism.


CONCLUSIONS
We found associations between student absenteeism and adverse school building conditions. Future studies should confirm these findings and prioritize strategies for school condition improvements.
Simons
Elinor
E
Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology, New York State Department of Health, Troy, NY, USA. esimons@medscape.com
Hwang
Syni-An
SA
Fitzgerald
Edward F
EF
Kielb
Christine
C
Lin
Shao
S
D000041:Absenteeism; D000818:Animals; D003058:Cockroaches; D005160:Facility Design and Construction; D005658:Fungi; D006801:Humans; D006813:Humidity; D016015:Logistic Models; D009518:New York; D012377:Rodentia; D012574:Schools; D014691:Ventilation