School Absenteeism Screening in the Healthcare Setting: Linking Education and Medicine.
Victoria E Goldman, Jacqueline Antoun, Panteha Hayati Rezvan and 1 others
PMID 40760903WHAT IT FOUND
A school-absence question was documented in nearly 70% of pediatric well-child visits.
About 15% of screened children missed two or more days in the past month, and those children were more likely to have asthma.
Key findings
01Screening was documented in nearly 70% (n = 489) of 699 included well-child visits.
02Among 484 screened youth, 72 (about 15%) missed two or more school days in the past month and were considered at risk for chronic absenteeism.
03Youth with positive screens were significantly more likely to have asthma (p = 0.023), and the most common reason for absences was acute medical issue (62.5%).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study covered only one month, October 2022, at two clinics in one health system. It may not reflect other settings or other times in the school year. The sample was mostly Hispanic/Latino and public-insured. This limits generalisability and makes it hard to detect differences by race/ethnicity or insurance. Screening was measured by chart documentation. Providers may have asked about attendance without recording it, so the 70% figure may understate actual conversations. The tool did not say whether the child or caregiver answered. Absences and reasons relied on recall, which can be biased. The study did not test whether screening improved attendance, health, referrals, or school outcomes. No provider characteristics such as years in practice were collected, so differences in screening use cannot be explained.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The article is listed as supported by NIH and non-U.S. government research.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that school-absence screening improves attendance or health. The study documented screening use and identified risk; it did not test whether screening changed outcomes, and providers who did not document the screen may still have asked about attendance.