Childhood epilepsy and school absence

Epilepsy is one of the most common diseases encountered among school children. Its effect on school attendance and academic performance is a major cause of concern to both parents and clinicians. In this communication, the absence rate and academic performance of 50 school children with epilepsy attending normal schools was compared with that of their age- and sex-matched classmates using the class attendance register and overall score of the 2001/2002 academic year. The mean and standard deviation of the number of days an epileptic child was absent in the 2001/2002 session was 15.3 + 13.8 days while that of the controls was 9.4 + 9.6 days (x2 = 3.4,df = 49, p < 0.001). There was no significant relationship between the rate of absenteeism and overall score among both epileptic children (x2 = 6.34, df = 2, p = 0.18) and the controls (x2 = 1.43, df = 2, p = 0.49). School absenteeism was therefore more common among epileptic children, though there was no observed negative effect of this increased absence on academic performance.