Unnecessary school absence after minor injury: case-control study

Abstract

Children acquire many of the academic and social skills they need for their adult lives at school. Excessive absence from school is associated with educational failure, particularly when children miss more than 11% of school days.1 Each year, one in three British children goes to an emergency department for treatment, predominantly with minor injuries, but the effect on school attendances has not been quantified.2 This study was designed to investigate the number of days missed from school after children attended one of three local emergency departments with minor injuries. We defined minor injuries as those not requiring admission to hospital and not affecting mobility or the ability of the child to care for himself or herself. This case-control study involved children resident in, and attending school full time in, the Welsh counties of Swansea and Neath Port Talbot during the autumn school term of 1999. A case was defined …