Academic performance of school children with epilepsy

Studies in developed countries show conflicting reports on effect of epilepsy on academic performance. There is also a dearth of information on the academic performance of Nigerian children with epilepsy.

This study is aimed at determining the academic performance of children with epilepsy with the hope that the findings will help in formulating policies that will be used in their educational programme.

The academic performance of 50 epileptic children attending normal primary school was compared with those of non-epileptic classmates matched for age, sex and socioeconomic status. The academic performance was assessed using the overall scores achieved in the terminal examination in the 2001/2002 academic years, as well as the scores in individual subjects.

There were 36 males and 14 females. The most common seizure type among the epileptic children was generalized tonic-clonic seizure. Thirteen (26%) of the epileptic children had a low overall score, and therefore poor academic performance, compared to 16% of the controls. (p = 0.35). However, the mean score of the epileptic children was significantly lower than that of the controls in English (p = 0.02), Science (p = 0.02) and Social studies (p = 0.02).

The overall academic performance of epileptic children without other chronic disorders attending normal schools is not different from that of normal children in the same setting, though they are under-achieving in some subjects.