Health disadvantages of middle-school students with disabilities in China

Around half of Chinese children with disabilities study in regular schools, as encouraged by national inclusive education policies. Evidence remains limited regarding whether students with disabilities experience health disadvantages compared to their peers. We analysed a sample of 11,037 middle-school students from a nationally representative survey in China. To improve the comparability in student characteristics and contexts, we take advantage of a unique quasi-experimental setting for within-class comparisons, in which the students were randomly assigned to each class. This study is among the first to document substantial health disparities between students with disabilities and their classmates, i.e. lower self-rated health scores and higher depression scores, despite a similar probability of hospitalisation experiences in the past year. The patterns persist between grades and genders. Evidence also suggests protective moderation effects of female class-teachers on the health of girls with disabilities. These findings call for attention to the importance of aligning healthcare and education policies to reduce child population health disparities and promote inclusive development.