Childhood Asthma Linked to Memory Issues

In a recent study published in JAMA Network Open, experts at the University of California Davis School of Medicine investigated the potential link between childhood asthma and memory problems, particularly episodic memory.

They examined longitudinal data on cognitive and brain development in teens in order to evaluate memory and cognitive development in children with and without asthma. The results showed that children with asthma had worse memory scores.

Asthma – Background

Asthma is a common chronic respiratory disorder in children, characterized by symptoms such as wheezing and breathing difficulty. However, recent animal studies have shown that asthma can cause neurological abnormalities such as memory problems.

In rat models, asthma is linked to neuroinflammation and hippocampus damage, both of which impair memory abilities. The hippocampus, which is responsible for episodic memory, appears to be particularly sensitive to inflammation and hypoxia caused by chronic respiratory disorders.

Childhood asthma research has mostly concentrated on physical symptoms, with little consideration given to potential cognitive ramifications, particularly in terms of memory and attention. The few studies that looked at cognitive impairments found that children with severe asthma had poorer verbal recall than their peers.

However, complicating factors, such as socioeconomic status, make it difficult to assign cognitive deficiencies purely to asthma, and further study is needed to determine whether asthma affects memory and cognitive ability in children.

About the study – Asthma linked to Cognitive Health

The current study used data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study, which is a major, longitudinal examination of brain development and cognitive health in children across the United States (U.S.) funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study included children aged 9 or 10 who were followed up for two years.

A history of asthma, identified through parent reports, was used to divide the participants into three groups: children with early asthma onset, children with late onset asthma, and a control group of children without asthma. The cross-sectional study compared children with and without asthma at various assessment stages.

Furthermore, the researchers assessed cognitive functioning using specialized activities from the NIH Toolbox, which included several neurological and behavioral measures. The tasks were selected for their sensitivity to potential asthma-related impairments. Key examinations included the image sequence memory test, which measures episodic memory based on hippocampal function. The pattern comparison processing speed test was used to examine processing speed, as well as the flanker inhibitory control and attention test, which measured attention and response inhibition.

To match controls according to characteristics including age, sex, and parental income, propensity score matching was employed. To address any confounding effects, additional analyses adjusted for socioeconomic status.

Linear growth models evaluated changes in attention, processing speed, and episodic memory over time in the longitudinal analysis, taking age-related gains into account. Additionally, in order to assess the variations in cognitive function between children with and without a history of asthma, the researchers employed linear regression models for the cross-sectional analysis.

Results

In comparison to their classmates without asthma, children with asthma, especially those with early-onset asthma, showed delayed memory development, according to the study. More precisely, compared to the comparison group, children with early-onset asthma had slower improvements in episodic memory over time, indicating that both early and chronic asthma may have an effect on memory development.

On the other hand, there were no appreciable changes in the rates of memory development between children with later-onset asthma and those without. However, the cross-sectional analysis revealed that children with any history of asthma did worse on measures of attention, processing speed, episodic memory, and inhibitory control than children without asthma.

According to these results, asthma may have a wide range of effects on cognitive processes, affecting not just memory but also other executive functions. This study provided evidence of comparable tendencies in children, but earlier research in animals revealed that inflammation in the brain caused by asthma can affect memory.

Additionally, regardless of socioeconomic status or race, children with asthma consistently performed worse on memory and cognitive tests in both longitudinal and cross-sectional models. These findings corroborated the theory that asthma, particularly if it is present from a young age, may impair children’s cognitive development and have an effect on their social and academic abilities.

Conclusions

In conclusion, the study found a strong correlation between children’s asthma and delayed memory and executive function development. These results demonstrated how critical it is to comprehend how asthma affects cognition and how this knowledge may affect how to manage academic and developmental outcomes in childhood asthma.

For more information: Christopher-Hayes, N. J., Haynes, S. C., Kenyon, N. J., Merchant, V. D., Schweitzer, J. B., & Ghetti, S. (2024). Asthma and Memory Function in Children. JAMA Network Open, 7(11), e2442803–e2442803. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.42803, https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2825946