Effect of meningitis in infancy on school-leaving examination results.

Objectives: To determine whether having had meningitis in infancy adversely affects academic achievement at age 16.

Methods: A case-control study in England and Wales of 461 teenagers who had bacterial meningitis in infancy and 289 GP matched controls recruited when the index cases were aged 5.

Outcome Measures: Comparison between index cases and controls of the type of school attended; the number of GCSE examinations attempted; the number of examinations passed (grades A*-C) and achievement in five key subjects.

Neonatal meningitis in England and Wales: sequelae at 5 years of age.

Unlabelled: This study determined the prevalence of serious sequelae among a national cohort of 5-year old children, born in England and Wales in 1996-7, who had had neonatal meningitis. The results were compared with those from two matched control groups. In addition the results from this study were compared with those from a previous 5-year follow-up of children who had had neonatal meningitis in 1985-7.

Long term follow up after meningitis in infancy: behaviour of teenagers.

Aims: To determine the effects of meningitis in infancy on subsequent teenage behaviour.

Methods: A national postal survey of parents and teachers using an established standard behavioural questionnaire. Subjects were 739 of the surviving children from the national incidence study of infantile meningitis in England and Wales carried out between 1985 and 1987, together with a group of 606 matched controls that had been recruited when the index cases were 5 years old.