Educational Outcomes in School-Aged Children With a History of Simple and Complex Gastroschisis are Poor Compared to Controls
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Osamuyi Asemota, Gabrielle Derraugh, Matthew Levesque, Anna C Shawyer, Suyin A Lum Min, Richard Keijzer
Background: Research on long-term cognitive outcomes of children with gastroschisis is limited and inconsistent. This study aimed to compare the educational outcomes of children with gastroschisis to age-matched controls using a population-based repository of educational data.
Methods: We performed a retrospective study of all children born with gastroschisis between 1991 and 2022. We compared the educational outcomes of children with simple and complex gastroschisis to date-of-birth matched controls using the: Early Development Instrument (EDI) and Grades 3, 7, and 8 assessments. We used odds ratio (OR) to compare the likelihood of children with gastroschisis failing an assessment compared to controls. We did subgroup analyses for simple and complex gastroschisis cases.
Results: A total of 208 gastroschisis cases and 2075 controls were included. There were 136 children with simple gastroschisis and 72 children with complex gastroschisis. Children with gastroschisis were more likely to fail a middle school assessment than controls (OR = 2.93, 95%CI = 1.73, 5.09). Even children with simple gastroschisis were more likely to fail a middle school assessment (OR = 2.66, 95%CI = 1.42, 5.13). Moreover, children with severe gastroschisis were at even greater odds of failing a middle school assessment than controls (OR = 4.57, 95%CI = 1.71, 13.60).
Conclusion: The academic performance of children born with gastroschisis, both simple and complex, is inferior to age-matched controls in middle school. Caregivers should be aware of the ongoing challenges that children born with gastroschisis face and seek early support.
Transcript
Do children born with gastroschysis perform worse in school compared to age-matched peers without the condition? I'm Lizzy Lee from Cincinnati Children's and this is an article you should know about. This is a retrospective study using educational data from children born between 1991 and 2022. Researchers used odds ratio in subgroup analyses to compare school performance using the early development instrument or EDI and grade level assessments between 208 children with gastroschysis and over 2,000 age-matched controls. They found that children with gastroschysis, even those with the simpler form, were significantly more likely to fail middle school assessments. This suggests that children with gastroschysis may face long-term learning challenges and could benefit from early educational support. Let us know what you think in the comments below and stay tuned for more articles that you should know about.