Background

Children treated for a brain tumor are at high risk of experiencing neurocognitive, physical and psychosocial late effects which can all negatively affect school performance. Previous studies concerning school grades from year 9 have mainly focused on theoretical subjects, such as native and foreign language as well as mathematics. This has revealed that children treated for a brain tumor are at risk of lower school grades compared to controls. Grades in different practical and aesthetic subjects have been investigated to a very limited extent although the syllabuses for these school subjects train skills that are important to strengthen social, physical, aesthetic, and practical skills, of children. Those subjects may also possibly affect some of the late effects as well as the psychological strain of the diagnosis and treatment.

Methods

We identified 475 children with available grades from year nine, born between 1988 and 1996, and diagnosed with a brain tumor before their 15^th birthday. We used chi-square tests to compare their grades with the grades from 2,197 matched controls in the subjects ‘Home and consumer studies’, ‘Physical education and health’, ‘Art’, ‘Crafts’ and ‘Music’.

Results

The preliminary results show that children treated for a brain tumor received a lower grade or failed in one or more subject to a significantly higher extent than controls in all the assessed subjects except in ‘Art’. Females were more affected than males in most subjects compared to their controls, although they still had the highest grade to a greater extent than males in all subjects except in ‘Physical education and health’.

Conclusions

As many children treated for a brain tumor seem to be at risk of lower grades or failing in the practical and aesthetic subjects, individualized support should be provided due to the benefits of these school subjects.