Multiple neurodevelopmental conditions may lead to worse educational
outcomes

Date:
October 13, 2020
Source:
PLOS
Summary:
Scottish children with multiple neurodevelopmental conditions
experience greater school absenteeism and exclusion, poorer exam
attainment and increased unemployment, according to a study.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Scottish children with multiple neurodevelopmental conditions experience greater school absenteeism and exclusion, poorer exam attainment and
increased unemployment, according to a study published October 13 in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Michael Fleming of the University
of Glasgow, and colleagues.


========================================================================== Children with neurodevelopmental conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD),
depression and intellectual disability often experience difficulties
at school. Multiple neurodevelopmental conditions commonly coexist, but
this phenomenon, known as neurodevelopmental multimorbidity, has received relatively little attention in children compared to adults. To address
this gap in knowledge, Fleming and his collaborators investigated the prevalence of neurodevelopmental multimorbidity in Scottish schoolchildren
and their educational outcomes compared to their peers. The authors linked together five Scotland-wide health and education databases to identify neurodevelopmental multimorbidity in 766,244, four- to 19-year-old
children attending school in Scotland between 2009 and 2013. Study
limitations are that 96.2% of the participants were white, so the
findings may not generalize to more ethnically diverse populations,
and the use of prescriptions rather than formal clinical diagnoses to
identify children with depression and ADHD.

Multimorbidity was defined as presence of 2 or more of the following
conditions in a child: depression, attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD), autism, intellectual disabilities. Compared to children
with no conditions, children with one or more of these conditions
experienced increased school absenteeism and exclusion, poorer exam
attainment, and increased unemployment.

Coexisting depression was the strongest driver of absenteeism, and
coexisting ADHD was the strongest driver of exclusion. Girls were
less likely to have multimorbidity, but if they did, they experienced
greater adverse impact on educational outcomes than did boys. Additional analysis showed that the increased risk of poor exam results was in
part explained by higher rates of absence and exclusion from school,
and that poorer exam results, in turn, explained the increased risk
of unemployment. This finding suggests that interventions should focus
on reducing school absence and exclusion, or their respective impact,
on affected children to minimize long-term adverse outcomes.

According to the authors, the standard practice of structuring healthcare systems and training around single conditions may disadvantage children
with neurodevelopmental multimorbidity by failing to recognize their
increased risk of poor educational outcomes and address all of their
needs.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by PLOS. Note: Content may be edited
for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Michael Fleming, Ehsan E. Salim, Daniel F. Mackay, Angela Henderson,
Deborah Kinnear, David Clark, Albert King, James S. McLay, Sally-Ann
Cooper, Jill P. Pell. Neurodevelopmental multimorbidity and
educational outcomes of Scottish schoolchildren: A population-based
record linkage cohort study. PLOS Medicine, 2020; 17 (10): e1003290
DOI: 10.1371/ journal.pmed.1003290 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201013141749.htm

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