Effect of Having a Quality Medical Home on School Attendance for Children with Asthma

Purpose: Understanding the concept of a quality medical home is important when it comes to ensuring the health of those with asthma. Previous studies have not examined the relationship between having a quality medical home and school absenteeism in children with asthma. The objective of this study it to estimate the effect of having a medical home on missing more than 11 days of school among children with asthma. Methods: Secondary data analysis of the 2011-12 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) was conducted. A total of 95,677 child-level interviews were completed. However, 6,623 surveys were analyzed for children ages 6-17 with current asthma. We estimated the frequencies of potential confounders (individual, family, and clinical measures) by missed school days. We used SAS Proc Surveylogistic to model the (1) effect of having a quality medical home; and (2) individual medical home subcomponents on missing 11 or more school days, adjusting for confounding variables. Results: Our key result is that children who did not have a quality medical home were 1.7 times more likely (95% CI: 1.2-2.3) to miss 11 or more school days than the children who had a quality medical home. We also found that children who did not have a usual source of sick care, which was a subcomponent of having a quality medical home, were 2.2 times more likely (95% CI: 1.2-4.0) to miss 11 or more school days than the children who had a usual source of sick care. Conclusions: From statistical analysis, it can be inferred that having a quality medical home will significantly decrease the chances of missing 11 or more school days. Interventions should be implemented to educate parents of children with asthma on the importance of having a quality medical home. Quality healthcare is essential to adequate asthma management which in turn can affect a child’s ability to regularly attend school.