The use of primary/national school absenteeism as a proxy retrospective child health status measure in an environmental pollution investigation

As a result of community concerns over animal and human ill health centred around a rural town in the Republic of Ireland, a series of epidemiological studies were conducted. The absence of adequate health-information systems forced researchers to investigate alternative methods of assessing child health in the ‘at-risk’ area. This study aimed to examine annual primary/national school attendance data over a 10 year period as a proxy health status measure. Data from six geographical areas were analysed; one of these six areas was designated the ‘high-risk’ area on the basis of reports of animal ill health. Significantly higher absenteeism rates were noted in the ‘high-risk’ area in nine of the 10 years examined. Although caution is urged in the interpretation of these results, this study demonstrates that primary/national school absenteeism data can act as a useful, albeit crude, proxy measure of health status.