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Download - Code Red: The Critical Condition of Health in Texas

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occasions and were more likely to receive academic special services (Fowler et al., 1988). Swift, et al(Swift et al., 1989) evaluated 21 children with sickle cell anemia and 21 sibling controls. There weresignificant differences on the Full Scale IQ assessments and almost all cognitive measures between thechildren with sickle cell anemia and their sibling controls. However, both groups demonstrated academicachievement that was appropriate for their intellectual ability. Wasserman et al. (Wasserman et al., 1991)examined 43 children with sickle cell anemia and 30 sibling controls. They reported that the children withsickle cell anemia missed a greater number of school days and scored significantly lower Performanceand Full Scale IQ scores then their sibling controls. There were no significant differences between thegroups on Verbal IQ, academic performance and the proportion placed in special education.In 1993, Brown and colleagues examined 70 youth with sickle cell anemia and 18 sibling controls(Brown et al., 1993). Children with sickle cell anemia scored significantly poorer than the non-diseasechildren on a reading decoding achievement test and a sustained attention task. However, no significantdifferences were found for measures of intellectual functioning, language functioning and visual-motortasks. A 2004 study by Schatz (Schatz, 2004) compared 50 children with sickle cell anemia and 36matched controls. He reported that the children with sickle cell anemia were more likely to have repeateda grade and needed academic services. Cognitive ability and days of illness were recognized as uniquepredictors of academic attainment problems among children with sickle cell anemia. Hematocrit, parenteducation, and income were not unique predictors. Only cognitive ability was a unique predictor ofacademic achievement. Moreover, some studies have found no differences between children with sicklecell anemia and their peers. For example, Goonan et al. (Goonan et al., 1994) reported no significantdifferences between children with sickle cell anemia and their controls on attention and inhibitory impulsetasks. Furthermore, Richard and Burlew (Richard & Burlew, 1997) reported no significant difference ongrades in mathematics or reading, standardized tests, and grade retention among 42 African-Americanchildren with sickle cell disease and 26 African-American controls. Both groups reported rates ofabsenteeism and below-average scores in math and reading.Evidence suggests that those who have suffered a stroke are more inclined to score lower onneuropsychological functioning and academic functioning than those who have not had a stroke(Armstrong et al., 1996). Armstrong and colleagues (1996) examined 194 children who were originallyenrolled in the Cooperative Study of Sickle Cell Disease multi-center study. Among children with thehomozygous condition (HbSS type), those with a history of cerebrovascular accident performedsignificantly poorer than those without a cerebrovascular accident on tests that assessed verbalknowledge and language abilities and visual-motor and spatial organization and integration. Children withMRIs suggestive of infarct also scored poorer than children with no MRI abnormalities on tests assessingarithmetic, vocabulary, reading, and visual-motor speed and coordination. In the year 2000, Brown andcolleagues examined a sample of 63 youths with sickle cell anemia (Brown et al., 2000). Those who hadsuffered a documented clinical stroke performed more poorly on sustained attention and effort tasks thantheir peers. Children with evidence of a silent stroke on their MRI also demonstrated similar impairmentsin the areas of attention (Brown et al., 2000).Wang and colleagues (2001) (Wang et al., 2001) longitudinally evaluated 373 children with sicklecell anemia who were participating in the Cooperative Study of Sickle Cell Disease. They performedseveral MRIs to assess whether the child had been exposed to a cerebral vascular accident. Their resultsindicated that those with sickle cell anemia who had suffered a silent infarct (n = 62) scored significantlylower on math and reading assessments, Full Scale IQ, and Verbal IQ than those with normal MRIfindings. Nabors and Freymuth (2002) (Nabors & Freymuth, 2002) compared 12 children with sickle celldisease with a prior history of stroke, 14 children with sickle cell disease without evidence of stroke, and13 sibling controls. This study found significant differences for attention and achievement between thosewith sickle cell anemia who had suffered a stroke and their sibling controls. However, when an outliercase was deleted, a significant difference in intelligence was also found between these two groups.Further, a significant difference in attention surfaced between those with sickle cell anemia who hadsuffered a stroke and those with sickle cell anemia who had not suffered a stroke. There were noE-12

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