School absenteeism and associated factors among children and adolescents attending sickle cell clinic, Mulago National Referral hospital, Kampala district.

This dataset contains anonymized data from a comparative cross-sectional study conducted at the Sickle Cell Clinic of Mulago National Referral Hospital, Kampala, Uganda, between July and November 2024. The study assessed the burden of school absenteeism and factors associated with chronic absenteeism among children and adolescents with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD), compared with their siblings or peers without SCD.
The dataset includes 358 participants, comprising 179 children and adolescents with SCD and 179 siblings or peers without SCD, aged 6–19 years and enrolled in primary or secondary school. The primary outcome is school absenteeism, measured as the number of school days missed during the previous school term. Chronic school absenteeism is defined according to UNESCO criteria as missing at least 10% of expected school days in the preceding term.
Variables include sociodemographic characteristics, school-related factors (school level, class repetition), clinical and medical history (clinic visits, hospital admissions, pain crises, blood transfusions), psychosocial factors (stigma, coping strategies, knowledge about SCD), and absenteeism outcomes. Data were collected using structured questionnaires, medical record abstraction, and clinical examinations by trained research staff.
The dataset is suitable for research on educational outcomes among children with chronic illnesses, health-related school disruption, and policy-relevant interventions to improve academic participation for children with SCD in low- and middle-income settings.