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Obesity And Other Predictors Of Absenteeism In Philadelphia School Children., Elizabeth B Rappaport, Constantine Daskalakis, Jocelyn Andrel
Obesity And Other Predictors Of Absenteeism In Philadelphia School Children., Elizabeth B Rappaport, Constantine Daskalakis, Jocelyn Andrel
Department of Family & Community Medicine Faculty Papers
BACKGROUND: 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.
METHODS: 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.
RESULTS: Overall rates of overweight and obesity were 17% and 20%, respectively, and the estimated absence rate was 17 absences per 180 …