Do children with JIA fare poorly in school?

Children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) show similar well-being and academic performance as those without JIA, according to a study.

In this population-wide, register-based, cross-sectional study, the investigators compared the results of children with and without JIA in the Danish National Well-Being Questionnaire (DNWQ), the National Danish School Testing (NDST), and their ninth grade (aged approximately 16 yrs) final school marks in Danish and mathematics.

Adjusted ordinal logistic regression (SWB) and linear regression (tests and marks) were used to analyse the results.

Separate cohorts included 505,340 children who answered the DNWQ, 812,461 children who had NDST results, and 581,804 children with ninth-grade final marks. Of these, 1,042, 1,541, and 1,410 fulfilled the JIA criteria, respectively.

Reported SWB was similar between children with and without JIA, except for the question “Do you perform well in school?” (odds ratio, 0.89, 95 percent confidence interval, 0.81‒0.99). In the NDST, children with JIA also did comparably well as their counterparts without JIA.

No differences were observed in the ninth-grade final marks in either Danish or mathematics between the two cohorts. In addition, the associations did not differ significantly when analyses were stratified according to socioeconomic status.

“Overall, children with JIA report SWB comparable to that of children without JIA and perform equally well in school as children without JIA,” the investigators said.