Asthma-related school absenteeism: Prevalence, disparities, and the need for comprehensive management: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Dialogues in health Pub Date : 2025-09-15 DOI:10.1016/j.dialog.2025.100239

Magda Mubarak Merghani , Ragaa Gasim Ahmed Mohmmed , Khaled Mohammed Al-Sayaghi , Nawal Saad M. Alshamrani , Eltayeb Mohammed Awadalkareem , Hassan Shaaib , Ahmed Alharbi , Athbah AlKabi , Sumayah Faqihi , Adil Abdalla , Hammad Ali Fadlalmola

{"title":"Asthma-related school absenteeism: Prevalence, disparities, and the need for comprehensive management: A systematic review and meta-analysis","authors":"Magda Mubarak Merghani , Ragaa Gasim Ahmed Mohmmed , Khaled Mohammed Al-Sayaghi , Nawal Saad M. Alshamrani , Eltayeb Mohammed Awadalkareem , Hassan Shaaib , Ahmed Alharbi , Athbah AlKabi , Sumayah Faqihi , Adil Abdalla , Hammad Ali Fadlalmola","doi":"10.1016/j.dialog.2025.100239","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Asthma, affecting 11.6–13.7 % globally, significantly impacts children's education, causing 47.5 % absenteeism, disturbed sleep, and frequent ER visits. These issues, alongside environmental triggers, medication side effects, and socioeconomic factors, hinder academic performance. Racial disparities in healthcare access accentuate the problem, with minorities receiving less preventive care. Family dynamics also play a role, as caregivers often keep children home fearing severe episodes. This review estimates the prevalence of asthma-related absenteeism, acute care needs, preventive drug use, and hospitalizations, emphasizing the need for comprehensive school-based asthma management to improve outcomes.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>We searched for relevant articles up to March 2025 from PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library. Two independent reviewers extracted data from the selected studies, including baseline information, outcomes, prevalence, risk factors, preventive drug use, ED admission, and hospitalization rates. All data analyses were performed using R version 4.3.3.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>We collected 5879 records after excluding 4242 duplicates. Thorough screening resulted in the retrieval of 24 entries eligible for inclusion in our review. Our analysis revealed a prevalence of asthma-related absenteeism of 29 %, with absenteeism among asthmatic students being 3.08 times higher than non-asthmatic students (<em>p</em> = 0.0040). The average duration of asthma-related absenteeism was 4.15 days (<em>p</em> = 0.0068). The rate of preventive drug use, ED admissions, and hospitalization were estimated to be 39 %, 24 %, and 7 %, respectively.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>This review highlighted a high burden of asthma-related school absenteeism. While some included studies reported higher burden among Black children, our review did not statistically analyze these disparities. These findings emphasize the need for school-based prevention strategies and policies that address disparities in healthcare access.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":72803,"journal":{"name":"Dialogues in health","volume":"7 ","pages":"Article 100239"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2025-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Dialogues in health","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S277265332500036X","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

Asthma, affecting 11.6–13.7 % globally, significantly impacts children's education, causing 47.5 % absenteeism, disturbed sleep, and frequent ER visits. These issues, alongside environmental triggers, medication side effects, and socioeconomic factors, hinder academic performance. Racial disparities in healthcare access accentuate the problem, with minorities receiving less preventive care. Family dynamics also play a role, as caregivers often keep children home fearing severe episodes. This review estimates the prevalence of asthma-related absenteeism, acute care needs, preventive drug use, and hospitalizations, emphasizing the need for comprehensive school-based asthma management to improve outcomes.

Methods

We searched for relevant articles up to March 2025 from PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library. Two independent reviewers extracted data from the selected studies, including baseline information, outcomes, prevalence, risk factors, preventive drug use, ED admission, and hospitalization rates. All data analyses were performed using R version 4.3.3.

Results

We collected 5879 records after excluding 4242 duplicates. Thorough screening resulted in the retrieval of 24 entries eligible for inclusion in our review. Our analysis revealed a prevalence of asthma-related absenteeism of 29 %, with absenteeism among asthmatic students being 3.08 times higher than non-asthmatic students (p = 0.0040). The average duration of asthma-related absenteeism was 4.15 days (p = 0.0068). The rate of preventive drug use, ED admissions, and hospitalization were estimated to be 39 %, 24 %, and 7 %, respectively.

Conclusion

This review highlighted a high burden of asthma-related school absenteeism. While some included studies reported higher burden among Black children, our review did not statistically analyze these disparities. These findings emphasize the need for school-based prevention strategies and policies that address disparities in healthcare access.

查看原文本刊更多论文

哮喘相关的学校缺勤：患病率、差异和综合管理的需要：一项系统回顾和荟萃分析

哮喘影响全球11.6 - 13.7%的儿童，严重影响儿童的教育，导致47.5%的儿童缺勤、睡眠障碍和频繁的急诊室就诊。这些问题，加上环境因素、药物副作用和社会经济因素，都会阻碍学习成绩。在获得医疗保健方面的种族差异加剧了这一问题，少数民族获得的预防性保健较少。家庭动态也发挥了作用，因为照顾者经常让孩子呆在家里，担心病情严重。本综述估计了哮喘相关缺勤、急性护理需求、预防性药物使用和住院的患病率，强调需要以学校为基础的全面哮喘管理来改善结果。方法检索PubMed、Scopus、Web of Science和Cochrane图书馆截至2025年3月的相关文章。两名独立评论者从选定的研究中提取数据，包括基线信息、结局、患病率、危险因素、预防性药物使用、急诊科入院和住院率。所有数据分析均使用R 4.3.3版本进行。结果剔除4242条重复记录后，共收集到5879条记录。经过彻底的筛选，我们检索了24个符合纳入我们综述的条目。我们的分析显示，哮喘相关的旷课率为29%，其中哮喘学生的旷课率是非哮喘学生的3.08倍（p = 0.0040）。哮喘相关的平均旷工时间为4.15天（p = 0.0068）。预防性药物使用率、急诊入院率和住院率估计分别为39%、24%和7%。结论本综述强调哮喘相关的旷课负担较高。虽然一些纳入的研究报告黑人儿童的负担更高，但我们的综述没有统计分析这些差异。这些发现强调需要以学校为基础的预防策略和政策，以解决医疗保健获取方面的差异。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊