The impact of intestinal atresia on educational and mental health outcomes in school-aged children: A case–control cohort study

Abstract

To assess real-world educational outcomes, neurodevelopmental disorders and mental health disorders in patients with intestinal atresia (IA) and compare these to outcomes to age-matched controls. We performed a retrospective case-control study of children with IA born between 1991 and 2017. We evaluated educational outcomes using an Early Developmental Instrument, Grades 3, 7 and 8 assessments, Grade 9 completion and performance, high school graduation, and neurodevelopmental and mental health disorders using International Classification of Diseases codes available from a population-based dataset. We identified a total of 94 IA cases and 940 date-of-birth-matched controls. Cases with chromosomal anomalies were more likely to fail the Early Developmental Instrument (OR = 2.88, p = 0.037), Grade 8 reading (OR = 2.94, p = 0.043) and Grade 12 (OR = 3.25, p = 0.036); cases without chromosomal anomalies were at no greater risk than their peers of failing to meet expectations and did not have an increased risk of anxiety (OR = 0.48, p = 0.12), depression (OR = 0.74, p = 0.6) or hyperactivity disorder (OR = 1.92, p = 0.087). Our study demonstrated that IA patients without chromosomal anomalies are not at higher risk of neurodevelopmental and mental health disorders than controls. These results will offer more accurate outcome predictions for parents of children with IA.