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SAMPLE, DESIGN, & INTERVENTIONACHIEVEMENTMEASUREOUTCOME(Beta=.36), which, in turn, was associated with lower grades (Beta=-.41).EPILEPSYAustin (1999)*Sample: N = 194 children (98 with epilepsy, 96 withasthma) between 11 and 17 years of age who werefollowed for 4 yearsEpilepsy Measure: Seizure severity (summed type ofseizure, seizure frequency, and number of antiepilepticdrugs and observed side effects)Asthma Measure: Asthma severity (summed frequencyof asthma attacks, medication side effects,hospitalizations, visits to hospital emergencydepartments, and number of school absences)Time 1: CaliforniaAchievement Tests(CAT) or the IowaTests of Basic Skills(ITBS)Follow Up: IndianaStatewide Tests ofEducational Progress(ISTEP)Covariate: Age at onsetThe epilepsy sample as a group scored significantly lower in each of thefive academic areas (composite, reading, mathematics, language,vocabulary) than the asthma sample.Subjects with high severity epilepsy scored significantly lower than eachof the three asthma subgroups and the low-severity epilepsy subgroup.Males with high severity epilepsy performed significantly worse thanfemales who had inactive epilepsy for each of the academic achievementareas.Study Design: CohortChildren with either inactive or low-severity epilepsy had mean scorescomparable to national norms; those with high seizure severity had meanscores ranging from 3 to 5 points below national norms.Change in academic achievement over time did not differ significantlyfrom zero for any achievement area for either the epilepsy or asthmasamples.Austin (1998)*Sample: N = 225 children (117 with epilepsy, 108 withasthma) who had been treated with medication for theirrespective condition for at least 1 year and who had noother chronic conditionAsthma or Epilepsy Measures: Age at onset; Seizureseverity;Seizure type; Seizure frequency; Asthmaseverity score; Asthma frequency scores; Asthmamedication side effects; Hospitalizations and emergencyroom visits for the past year; School absencesStudy Design: Case-controlSchool administeredgroup tests (includingthe CaliforniaAchievement Test &Iowa Tests of BasicSkills)Child BehaviorChecklistAdjusted for age of onsetThere were significant main effects for condition for each of the five areas(reading, mathematics, language, vocabulary, and composite), withchildren with epilepsy fairing worse than children with asthma.Those most at risk for poor academic achievement are children with themost severe epilepsy.Correlations were generally low between academic achievement andschool self-concept. Correlations between attitude and academicachievement within the asthma sample were higher than for the epilepsysample.In the asthma sample, there was a strong trend for males to score lowerthan females (p = 0.052) in Language. Further, condition severity,attitude, and adaptive functioning were significantly associated with eachof the academic achievement scores.E-78