Peer-reviewed article
Neurocognitive and Academic Outcomes for Children With Sickle Cell Disease After Changes in Academic Instruction During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Lensink A, Rooney E, Wu C, Longoria JN, Potter B et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study compared neurocognitive and academic performance in 488 children with sickle cell disease who were assessed before and after school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Children assessed before school closures performed significantly better on measures of processing speed, visuomotor integration, reading, and math fluency. The negative impact of pandemic-related school changes was larger for younger children and greater than effects observed in the general population, suggesting children with sickle cell disease were particularly vulnerable to learning loss.
Key points
- Children assessed before school closures had higher scores on visuomotor integration, processing speed, math fluency, and basic reading
- The difference in outcomes between pre- and post-closure groups was larger for younger patients
- Learning loss associated with pandemic changes was greater in children with sickle cell disease than in the general population
- Study controlled for multiple confounding factors including age, sex, genotype, hydroxyurea treatment, socioeconomic status, fetal hemoglobin, and oxygen saturation
Limitations
This is a retrospective study using propensity score matching rather than a randomized design, so causality cannot be definitively established. The study does not examine specific mechanisms driving the disparate impact or identify which aspects of academic instruction changes most affected children with sickle cell disease.
Abstract
Introduction Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a monogenic blood disorder that places individuals at risk for poorer/lower neurocognitive function. In this population, the impact of changes in academic instruction related to the COVID-19 pandemic is unknown. We examined whether children who were assessed before schools closed showed higher academic and neurocognitive performance than did children who were assessed after schools reopened. Secondarily, we sought to evaluate whether these associations were moderated by age or socioeconomic status. Methods This retrospective study included 488 children with SCD (ages 7-18 years) who participated in a clinical cognitive surveillance program. Children assessed before school closures (March 1, 2020) and after re-openings (January 1, 2021) during the COVID-19 pandemic were matched on the following variables: age, sex, genotype, hydroxyurea treatment history, socioeconomic status, fetal hemoglobin, and oxygen saturation using propensity scores. Results Children assessed before school closures displayed higher scores on measures of visuomotor integration (q = 0.006, estimate = -4.20), processing speed (q = 0.004, estimate = -0.96), math fluency (q = 0.05, estimate = -3.50), and basic reading (q = 0.006, estimate = -5.70) after controlling for confounding factors. These effects were moderated by age, such that the difference in outcomes between the groups was larger for younger patients. Discussion Changes in academic instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic were associated with decreased neurocognitive and academic outcomes for children with SCD. The negative effect observed in this population is greater than that observed in the general population, suggesting that these students were particularly susceptible to learning loss.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Changes in academic instruction during COVID-19 pandemic (school closures and subsequent reopenings with modified instruction)
- Population
- 488 children with sickle cell disease aged 7-18 years enrolled in a clinical cognitive surveillance program
Key finding
Visuomotor integration scores were 4.20 points lower in post-closure group (q=0.006)