Education and young people with inflammatory bowel disease

Children and their parents are often anxious that chronic disease may interfere with examination performance. The provision within schools for children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) was investigated by a postal survey of headteachers of 98 schools with over 48,000 pupils in Leicestershire and Cardiff. Headteachers in Cardiff were more likely to have heard of ulcerative colitis (95%) than those in Leicestershire (70%), (X2 = 4.5, p less than 0.05). They knew of 16 children with inflammatory bowel disease. The majority of heads provide easy access to lavatories during examinations and would tell the examining body of a child's medical problem. While most heads would like more information about inflammatory bowel disease, few have facilities to inform teachers about chronic illness in young people. Most think healthy young people should be provided with information about chronic diseases, which they would like provided by nurses. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) affects over 1200 children in the United Kingdom. Children and their parents are concerned that these conditions will interfere with schooling, taking examinations and their employment (Rees et al 1983, Wyke et al 1988). Provisions by schools for children with IBD were investigated.