Asthma Linked to Memory Difficulties in Children

TUESDAY, Nov. 12, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Asthma is associated with memory difficulties in children, according to a study published online Nov. 11 in JAMA Network Open.

Nicholas J. Christopher-Hayes, from the University of California Davis, and colleagues examined whether childhood asthma is associated with lower memory abilities in children using observational data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, which enrolled approximately 11,800 children aged 9 to 10 years at baseline.

The longitudinal analysis included 474 children. The researchers found that relative to the comparison group, children with an earlier onset of asthma exhibited lower rates of longitudinal memory improvements (β = −0.17). The cross-sectional analysis included 2,062 children (1,031 with asthma and 1,031 without asthma). Lower scores on episodic memory (β = −0.09), processing speed (β = −0.13), and inhibition and attention (β = −0.11) were seen for children with asthma.

“The current study provides novel evidence that children with asthma exhibit altered memory functioning during development, in addition to consequences extending to other cognitive domains,” the authors write. “These results accentuate the need to examine this population more closely to understand the full extent to which asthma influences neurodevelopment.”

Abstract/Full Text