Poster #93 - Air Quality, Asthma, and School Absenteeism

• In Event: 2-002 - Special Poster Session 05 with Continental Breakfast Reception
  In Poster Session: PS 05 - Interdisciplinary Section

Integrative Statement

BACKGROUND AND STUDY PURPOSE
Chronic absenteeism, defined as missing 10% or more of the school year, in early elementary school is associated with lower academic achievement outcomes and a decrease in social and educational engagement at school (Gottfried, 2014). Because these attendance gaps may lead to achievement gaps, it is important to address this issue early in a child’s development. Among the leading causes of chronic absenteeism across the country is asthma, accounting for one third of all days of missed instruction (Attendance Works, 2015). Children with chronic asthma are more than three times as likely to have 10 or more absences as their peers (CDC, 2015). Although there are many causes of asthma, in this project, we focused on ambient air pollution. Previous studies on the association between air pollution, asthma, and school attendance have found that certain pollutants (i.e., ozone) are associated with an increase in respiratory illness-related school absences (Gilliland et al., 2000).
In this study, we examined the effect of air pollution on daily attendance rates of elementary students in a small urban area for the 2015-2016 school year. We examined patterns for elementary school students citywide, students who were identified as having asthma (i.e., having an asthma plan on file with the school), and students who were chronically absent during that school year.
DATA SOURCE AND METHODS
We used two sets of data for this study: (1) daily attendance data from the school system and (2) daily ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentration data from the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulatory monitoring network. All air quality data were downloaded from the EPA’s Air Data web portal and daily concentrations were merged with the attendance data for further analysis. In total, our sample included 7,165 elementary students from a small urban school system during the 2015-2016 school year. Of those students, 306 (4.3%) were identified as having asthma and 1,027 (14.4%) were chronically absent (see Table 1). To analyze our data, we used bivariate correlations between the three air pollutants and attendance rates.
RESULTS
As shown in Table 2, there was a significant association between NO2 levels and attendance rates for all students (r = -.258, p < .01), asthmatic students (r = -.229, p < .01), and chronically absent students (r = -.262, p < .01), indicating that on days with higher NO2 concentrations, there were lower school attendance rates across all students. There was no association, however, between attendance rates and O3 or PM2.5 levels.
IMPLICATIONS
Most epidemiological studies of air quality and health focus on physical health outcomes (e.g., cardiovascular disease; lung cancer). Our analysis suggests a previously understudied additional risk factor associated with poor air quality – lower school attendance rates. Additionally, elevated NO2 concentrations were correlated with lower attendance rates even at concentrations far below the current EPA standard – a finding that is consistent with health effects studies of physical risk factors that find health impacts at low concentrations.

Authors

• Maria Stack Hankey, Virginia Tech
  Presenting Author

• Steve Hankey, Virginia Tech
  Non-Presenting Author

• Craig T Ramey, Virginia Tech
  Non-Presenting Author

• Chenguang Du, Virginia Tech
  Non-Presenting Author