Study: No Meaningful Link Between AD and Adolescent Academic Performance

Key Takeaways

• Atopic dermatitis (AD) was not consistently associated with meaningful differences in academic performance across two large cohorts, new research suggests.
• Active AD showed an association with increased risk of nonpassing grades in Denmark.
• Phenotype and socioeconomic factors did not meaningfully modify academic outcomes.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) was not found to impair academic perfromance in adolsecents patients, according to results from a new analysis of two large European cohorts. 

Researchers looked at two large, population-based cohort studies from Denmark and England, as to whether childhood AD is associated with academic performance at approximately age 16 years. The analysis included 782,837 children, leveraging nationwide registry data in Denmark and the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children linked to the National Pupil Database in England. AD exposure was defined by hospital diagnosis before age 13 years in Denmark and repeated maternal report in England. Primary outcomes included nonpassing grades and mean academic performance scores on national examinations.

In Denmark (n = 776,214), children with AD demonstrated a slightly higher prevalence of nonpassing grades compared with those without AD (12.0% vs 11.2%; adjusted prevalence ratio [aPR], 1.06; 95% CI, 1.01 to 1.12) and marginally lower mean scores (mean difference, −0.06 points; 95% CI, −0.11 to −0.01). Active AD was associated with a higher prevalence of nonpassing grades (aPR = 1.19; 95% CI, 1.03 to 1.37). Sibling analyses yielded similar findings, suggesting limited confounding by shared familial factors. In the England cohort, data indicated better academic outcomes among children with AD, including a lower prevalence of nonpassing grades (aPR = 0.88; 95% CI, 0.83 to 0.93) and higher mean scores. These findings were largely driven by moderate disease phenotypes; mild-intermittent and severe-frequent AD showed comparable outcomes to unaffected peers.

Across both cohorts, no consistent variation in academic performance was observed by disease phenotype or socioeconomic background.

“ In these parallel cohort studies, triangulation across two large cohorts and multiple analyses provided reassurance that AD is likely not associated with meaningfully diminished academic performance among adolescents taking national compulsory examinations," the authors wrote.

Source: Iskandar R, et al. JAMA Dermatology. 2026. Doi:10.1001/jamadermatol.2026.0425