allergic<\/a> to pollen, along with one in five children.<\/p>\nWhile plenty of research has looked at how these allergies can affect people\u2019s health and well-being, there\u2019s been little attention paid to their potential effects on academic performance, the study researchers say.<\/p>\n
The team focused on an easily tracked variable that could be influenced by the appearance of pollen: teens\u2019 matriculation exams, the tests used in Finland and much of Europe to secure graduation from secondary\/high school (only some states in the U.S. have a similar concept). These tests are taken in the spring, which is when two pollen-producing plants in the region start to bloom, alder (several Alnus species) and hazel (Corylus avellana). They tracked how all children attending school in the cities of Helsinki and Turku performed on various subject tests between 2006 and 2020\u2014nearly 100,000 kids in total.<\/p>\n
Compared to days with no significant pollen in the area, kids performed noticeably worse on days with pollen, the researchers found, though there was some variability. Specifically, children did worse on days with either low or high pollen counts. This could reflect how people and their bodies typically manage these allergies, the researchers say. Low pollen counts could signify the very start of the pollen season, for instance, when people might be caught off-guard. By the time moderate pollen counts are happening, though, people\u2019s immune systems might have adjusted a bit, and\/or people are taking antihistamines to reduce their symptoms.<\/p>\n
These interventions can only do so much, explaining why high pollen counts start to affect test scores again. Every extra 10 grains per cubic meter of alder pollen was associated with a 0.042 drop in test scores (on a scale from 1 to 66), while each 10 grains of hazel pollen was associated with a 0.17 drop.<\/p>\n
That might seem modest, but it\u2019s worth noting the highest daily pollen count during the study period was 521 pollen grains of alder per cubic meter. These results are also across the entire student body, most of whom weren\u2019t allergic to pollen. While it\u2019s possible pollen could hurt non-allergic students on test day as well (kids distracted by other people\u2019s symptoms, for instance), it\u2019s obviously more of a nuisance to children with actual allergies. In other words, these findings might be underselling the typical effect of pollen on a vulnerable student\u2019s test scores.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe study provides robust evidence of the relationship between short-term fluctuations in pollen levels and students\u2019 academic performance,\u201d the researchers wrote.<\/p>\n
What to do about the pollen problem <\/p>\n
This research is observational, meaning the findings can only show a correlation between pollen and worse test scores. So it\u2019s at least prudent to conduct further studies to verify and better understand this possible phenomenon.<\/p>\n
Given the importance of these exams, pollen could meaningfully be harming some kids\u2019 career prospects, and there are interventions schools and others can take to minimize its impact, the researchers say. That might include scheduling exams outside of pollen season, making sure people are aware of their allergies and the day\u2019s expected pollen count, and making it easier for people to access medications in a timely fashion.<\/p>\n
Pollen season is bad enough as is. In an ideal world, it shouldn\u2019t be the reason why some kids do worse in school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pollen season can wreak havoc on all sorts of occasions. Research out today shows that it might even…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":632778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[11],"tags":[24320,17667,210,1175,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-632777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-allergies","tag-childrens-health","tag-health","tag-pollen","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116173803872574325","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}