A Quasi-Experimental Study of the Effects of Pre-Kindergarten Education on Pediatric Asthma

Ensuring access to pre-kindergarten (Pre-K) education remains a pressing policy issue in the United States. Prior research has shown the positive effects that Pre-K has on children’s cognitive development. However, studies on its effects on children’s health outcomes are scarce. This study aimed to investigate the effects of the Pre-K program on pediatric asthma. Children’s individual data from existing research conducted in North Carolina were linked with state Medicaid claims data from 2011–2017. There were 51,408 observations (person-month unit) of 279 children enrolled in Pre-K and 333 unenrolled children. Asthma was identified using the ICD 9/10 codes. A difference-in-differences model was adopted using a panel analysis with three time periods: before, during, and after Pre-K. The explanatory variables were interaction terms between Pre-K enrollment and (a) before vs. during period and (b) during vs. after period. The results indicated that children enrolled in Pre-K had a greater risk of asthma diagnosis during Pre-K (b = 0.0145, p = 0.058). Conversely, in the post-intervention period, the enrolled children had a lower of receiving an asthma diagnosis (b = −0.0216, p = 0.002). These findings indicate that Pre-K may increase the use of asthma-related health services in the short term and decrease the service use after participants leave the program.