Department of Family and Community Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University, 1015 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19107, USA.
J Sch Health. 2011 Jun;81(6):341-4. doi: 10.1111/j.1746-1561.2011.00599.x.
Limited data indicate that obese children are absent from school more than their normal-weight peers. We analyzed administrative data from a large urban school district to investigate the association of obesity and student sociodemographic characteristics with absenteeism.
We analyzed 291,040 records, representing 165,056 unique students (grades 1-12). Obesity status was classified according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention age- and sex-specific percentiles for body mass index (BMI) and analyses were based on negative binomial regression.
Overall rates of overweight and obesity were 17% and 20%, respectively, and the estimated absence rate was 17 absences per 180 student-days. Obesity was weakly associated with increased school absences. The association was present mainly among the most obese students (BMI >99th percentile), who had an 11% greater absence rate compared to normal-weight students. Compared to white students, Hispanics and African Americans had higher absence rates (14% and 10%, respectively), and Asians had lower absence rates (43%). Students eligible for free or reduced-cost meals had 24% higher absence rates than those who were not eligible.
Overweight and obesity do not seem strongly associated with school absence, except among extremely obese children. Race and poverty appear to affect absences to a greater extent than overweight and obesity. Additional research is needed to investigate the contribution of contextual factors in schools and neighborhoods. This study suggests that data routinely collected in schools could be used to track childhood obesity and to efficiently evaluate public health interventions designed to decrease childhood obesity.
有限的数据表明，肥胖儿童缺课的情况比正常体重的同龄人更为常见。我们分析了一个大型城市学区的行政数据，以调查肥胖症与学生社会人口特征与旷课之间的关联。
我们分析了 291040 条记录，代表了 165056 名独特的学生（1-12 年级）。根据疾病控制与预防中心（Centers for Disease Control and Prevention）针对体重指数（BMI）的年龄和性别特异性百分位数，对肥胖状况进行了分类，分析基于负二项回归。
超重和肥胖的总体比率分别为 17%和 20%，估计的缺课率为每 180 个学生日 17 个缺课。肥胖与增加的学校缺课率之间存在微弱的关联。这种关联主要存在于最肥胖的学生（BMI >99 百分位）中，与正常体重的学生相比，他们的缺课率高出 11%。与白人学生相比，西班牙裔和非裔美国人的缺课率更高（分别为 14%和 10%），而亚洲人的缺课率更低（43%）。有资格享受免费或减价餐食的学生的缺课率比没有资格的学生高出 24%。
超重和肥胖似乎与缺课之间没有很强的关联，除了在极度肥胖的儿童中。种族和贫困似乎比超重和肥胖对缺课的影响更大。需要进一步研究以调查学校和社区环境因素的贡献。本研究表明，学校常规收集的数据可用于跟踪儿童肥胖症，并有效地评估旨在减少儿童肥胖症的公共卫生干预措施。
