Academic achievement in Ugandan children with sickle cell anaemia: A cross-sectional study

Academic achievement in school-age children is crucial for advancing learning goals. Children with sickle cell anaemia (SCA) in Sub-Saharan Africa may be at risk of disease-associated school difficulties. Limited data exist on the academic achievement of children with SCA in the region. This study aimed to assess academic achievement of children with SCA in Uganda compared to siblings without SCA.

A cross-sectional study conducted at Mulago Hospital SCA Clinic in Uganda.

School-going children (6-12 years) with SCA and age-matched sibling controls without SCA.

Academic achievement was tested using the Wide Range Achievement Test, Fourth Edition (WRAT4). Outcome measures were spelling, mathematical computation, word reading, and sentence comprehension by age-normalized Z-scores on the WRAT4 test.

Among 68 SCA and 69 control, the mean age (standard deviation) was 9.44 (2.04) and 9.42 (2.02) years and males were 55.9% and 46.4% respectively. Mean haemoglobin was 7.9 (SD 0.89)g/dL in the SCA group versus 12.8 (SD 0.89)g/dL in the controls, (p<0.001). Children with SCA scored lower in spelling, (mean difference [95% confidence interval] - 0.36 [-0.02 to -0.69], p=0.04) and mathematical computation, (mean difference [95% confidence interval] -0.51 [-0.17 to -0.85], p=0.003) than the controls. In the SCA group, lower scores in spelling correlated with age, while males performed better than females in mathematical computation.

School-aged children with SCA are at risk of poor performance in spelling and mathematical computation. Our findings support the need for educational evaluation and possible support, especially in these two areas.