Objective: We aimed to investigate how school well-being (SWB) and academic performance of children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) compare to their peers on a national level using the Danish national registers. Further, we investigated the potential influence of socioeconomic status (SES).
Methods: A population wide, register-based, cross-sectional study was performed. We compared the results of children with and without JIA in the Danish National Well-being Questionnaire (DNWQ), the National Danish School Testing (NDST), and the 9th grade (approx. 16 years old) final school marks in Danish and mathematics. The results were analysed using adjusted ordinal logistic regression (SWB) and linear regression (tests and marks).
Results: We included in separate cohorts a total of 505,340 children answering DNWQs, 812,461 with NDST results, and 9th grade final marks of 581,804 children. Of these children, 1,042, 1,541, and 1,410 respectively fulfilled the criteria of JIA. Children with JIA reported SWB comparable to their peers except for the question "Do you perform well in school?" (OR=0.89 [95% CI 0.81; 0.99]). In the NDST the children with JIA in general did just as well as their peers. We found no differences in the 9th grade final marks in neither Danish nor mathematics. Stratifying the analyses on SES showed no significant differences in the associations.
Conclusion: Overall, children with JIA report SWB comparable to that of children with no JIA and perform equally well in school as children without JIA.