[Disease statistics and absence from school]

Abstract

As a result of the evaluation of 1085 school absences in a retrospective study at the Aarau Technical School, it was found that frequency of absences was significantly (p less than 0.01) less in summer with 2.3 percent (boys) and 2.0 percent (girls) missed lessons than in winter with 3.5 percent (boys) and 3.2 percent (girls). There were medical reasons in 58.7 percent; every tenth case was an accident. A comparative study in 1495 schoolchildren aged 6-16, in the Aargau showed that in this collective, there was an average of 1273 school absences per month, so that about 1.8 percent of the monthly school time was lost. A further comparative study in the City of Zurich revealed that about a third more time was lost than in the country.