Atopic dermatitis does not influence academic performance

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is unlikely to be associated with reduced academic performance among teens taking national compulsory examinations, according to a study.

Researchers conducted parallel, population-based cohort studies in Denmark and England and identified children with or without AD, defined as hospital diagnosis before age 13 years in the Danish cohort or at least two maternal reports of AD by age 11.5 years in the English cohort.

A total of 782,837 children were included in the combined cohorts. The main outcome was academic performance on final compulsory national examinations at approximately age 16 years of age, with the percentage of children with nonpassing grade and mean academic performance score evaluated.

The Danish cohort included 776,214 children, of which 10,259 had AD and 49.8 percent were female. The prevalence of nonpassing grades was 12 percent among children with AD vs 11.2 percent among their no-AD peers (fully adjusted prevalence ratio [aPR], 1.06, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.01–1.12). Mean academic performance scores were also similar between children with and without AD (mean difference, −0.06 points, 95 percent CI, −0.11 to −0.01).

Active AD was associated with a higher prevalence of nonpassing grades (aPR, 1.19, 95 percent CI, 1.03–1.37), with sibling analyses showing similar results.

The English cohort comprised 6,623 children, of which 2,967 had AD and 50.3 percent were female. Nonpassing grades were identified in 37.7 percent of children with AD vs 47.4 in those without AD (aPR, 0.88, 95 percent CI, 0.83–0.93). Mean performance scores were higher by 10.48 points (95 percent CI, 6.49–13.86) among children with vs without AD.

In phenotype analyses, the results were found to be driven by better performance in children with moderate-declining and moderate-frequent AD. Children with mild-intermittent or severe-frequent AD performed similarly to those without AD or rare AD.

Overall, no consistent variation by disease phenotype or socioeconomic background was observed across academic performance outcomes and settings.