Children with asthma could have worse memory performance and a higher risk of dementia than kids who do not have the condition.
That is according to findings from a study published in JAMA Network Open this month. The study is the first of its kind to link asthma to memory deficits in children.
Researchers analyzed a sample of 473 children in the United States who developed asthma early in their lives. The children were followed by researchers for two years.
What Are the Study's Findings
The study found that childhood asthma affected an individual's episodic memory, which refers to a person's capacity to form, store, and retrieve conscious memories of personal experiences. This also includes an individual's capacity to remember specific details of everyday events, such as who else was present and how they felt.
Prior studies with older adults and animals have also associated asthma with a greater risk of dementia or Alzheimer's disease.
"Asthma might set children on a trajectory that could increase their risk to later develop something more serious like dementia as adults," lead author Nicholas Christopher-Hayes said.
The researchers did not specifically assess how asthma may have caused memory deficits in children. However, potential explanations cited in the study include prolonged inflammation and recurrent attacks that disrupt oxygen supply to the brain.
How Many Children Have Asthma?
Asthma is a chronic breathing condition affecting the lungs. Asthma attacks are triggered when inflammation causes the airways to tighten, making it hard to breathe.
It is estimated that 262 million people, including children and adults, suffer from asthma worldwide. In the United States specifically, there are 4.7 million children under the age of 18 with breathing conditions, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The prevalence of asthma varies by age group:
- Ages 0 to 4: 1.9% (369,646 children)
- Ages 5 to 11: 7.5% (2,103,060 children)
- Ages 5 to 17 (school age): 8.1% (4,305,830 children)
Asthma is more common among male children (8.4%) compared to female children (5.5%), per the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.
