Nationwide, population-based study of school grades in practical and aesthetic subjects of children treated for brain tumour

Abstract

BackgroundChildren treated for brain tumour (hereafter termed paediatric brain tumour survivors (PBTS)) often need extra support in school because of late-appearing side effects after their treatment. We explored how this group of children perform in the five practical and aesthetic (PRAEST) subjects: home and consumer studies, physical education and health, art, crafts and music.MethodsIn this nationwide population-based study of data from the Swedish Childhood Cancer Registry and Statistics Sweden, we included 475 children born between 1988 and 1996, diagnosed with a brain tumour before their 15th birthday. We compared their grades in PRAEST subjects with those of 2197 matched controls. We also investigated if there were any differences between girls and boys, children diagnosed at different ages, and children with high-grade or low-grade tumours.ResultsThe odds for failing a subject were two to three times higher for girls treated for a brain tumour compared with their controls in all five PRAEST subjects, whereas there were no significant differences between the boys and their controls in any subject. PBTS had lower average grades from year 9 in all PRAEST subjects, and girls differed from their controls in all five subjects, while boys differed in physical education and health and music. PBTS treated for high-grade tumours neither did have significantly different average grades nor did they fail a subject to a significantly higher extent than PBTS treated for low-grade tumours.ConclusionsChildren treated for a brain tumour, especially girls, are at risk of lower average grades or failing PRAEST subjects. All children treated for brain tumour may need extra support as these subjects are important for their well-being and future skills.

Can National Tests from the Last Year of Compulsory School Be Used to Obtain More Detailed Information about Academic Performance in Children Treated for Brain Tumours? A Nationwide, Population-Based Study from Sweden

“…As in our two previous studies on academic grades in theoretical [ 13 ] and practical aesthetical subjects [ 14 ], there were no significant differences between the PBTS treated for high- or low-grade tumours in their national test performance, with the exception of missing information from the subtest reading/listening in Swedish, which became significant when fathers’ educations were taken into account. While our previous studies evinced significant differences within the PBTS group between girls and boys and their final grades in most theoretical and practical aesthetic subjects [ 13 , 14 ], this difference was not seen for the national tests. Still, when comparing the PBTS to controls, differences between the girls and boys were detected, as the odds for missing information from the national tests or to fail the national tests were higher for female PBTS compared with their controls than for male PBTS compared with their controls.…”

“…The results showed that PBTS performed significantly worse compared with controls in all subjects and evinced a higher frequency of missing information and fail, but there were considerable differences between the subtests. Previous studies [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ] showed that PBTS in general have lower grades compared with controls, so this was anticipated. Compared with our study of final grades in these subjects [ 13 ], the odds ratios for PBTS to fail the national tests compared with the controls were smaller than for having fail as their final grade.…”

“…In two previous articles, we investigated the final grades in the theoretical and practical subjects of this cohort [ 13 , 14 ]. Here, we focused on the national tests grades that precede the final grades in three theoretical subjects.…”

“…If this was possible, it could have provided even more differentiated and valuable information. A third limitation, as discussed in Lönnerblad et al [ 13 , 14 ], is the uneven proportions of excluded participants between the PBTS and controls. However, we assume that if those children treated for brain tumours from whom we had no information at all about grades were included, the differences would be even larger.…”

“…These deficits can all affect school performance negatively [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. A handful of studies have investigated the final grades in first foreign language (English); mother tongue (Finnish, Danish and Swedish, respectively) and mathematics [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ]. These studies have all shown that children treated for brain tumours, hereafter termed paediatric brain tumour survivors (PBTS), are at risk of obtaining lower grades compared with controls in different school subjects.…”