School readiness among urban children with asthma

Background.-Children with chronic illnesses, including asthma, are at risk for school problems. Developmental problems, however, may begin before scho ol entry, and the developmental status of preschool children with asthma ha s not been evaluated. Objective.-To test the hypothesis that urban preschool children with asthma have lower parent-reported developmental scores compared with children wit hout asthma. Methods.-A comprehensive survey of children beginning kindergarten in 1998 in the urban school system in Rochester, NY, collected parent reports of de mographic, medical, and developmental data. We compared children with asthm a with and without limitation of activity to children without asthma for mo tor, language, socioemotional, and school readiness skills and the need for extra help with learning. Linear and logistic regression were used to dete rmine associations between asthma and developmental outcomes. Results.-Among the 1058 children in this sample, 9% had asthma, including 5 % with asthma with limitation of activity. After adjustment for multiple po tential confounding variables, the children with asthma with limitation had lower scores on school readiness skills compared with children without ast hma (2.0 vs 2.5, P < .001). Further, the parents of children with asthma wi th limitation were substantially more likely (P < .05) to describe them as needing extra help with learning (74% vs 56%; odds ratio, 3.2; 95% confiden ce interval, 1.5-7.8). Conclusions.-Urban preschool children with significant asthma had poorer pa rent-reported school readiness skills and a greater need for extra help wit h learning compared with children without asthma. This finding suggests tha t developmental problems for children with asthma may begin before school e ntry.