Seasonal allergies may do more than make students miserable at school — they could also affect how well they perform academically.A new study links exposure to higher pollen levels to poorer performance on major end-of-the-year tests — the kind that can influence graduation, college admissions, and future opportunities.Researchers analyzed more than 156,000 exam scores from over 92,000 high school students in Finland between 2006 and 2020.They compared test results with daily tree pollen counts and found even modest increases were tied to measurable drops in standardized scores…especially in math-heavy subjects like physics and chemistry.And the pattern held even after accounting for air pollution, temperature, and rainfall.This was an observational study, so it can’t prove pollen directly caused the lower scores.With about one in five kids dealing with seasonal allergies, the authors say symptoms like stuffy noses, disrupted sleep, and trouble focusing could help explain the dip in scores.They say schools may want to consider ways to limit pollen exposure during testing season. Source: Journal of Epidemiology & Community HealthAuthor Affiliations: University of Oulu, University of Turku .Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter