Asthma can lead to memory challenges for children, especially when it starts early, as found by a recent study from the University of California, Davis. This groundbreaking research, which was published on November 5 in JAMA Network Open, is the first to link asthma with memory issues in young people.
According to researchers, asthma might be a significant factor in cognitive difficulties experienced by children. Studies have increasingly shown that chronic illnesses, including asthma, diabetes, and heart disease, may elevate the risk of cognitive impairments in kids.
“This study highlights the need to view asthma as a possible cause of cognitive challenges in children,” said lead author Simona Ghetti, a psychology professor at UC Davis. “It is crucial to identify the factors that could worsen or mitigate these risks.”
Understanding the link between asthma and children’s memory
Asthma is a lifelong respiratory condition that leads to breathing issues when the airways swell and tighten. Approximately 260 million individuals worldwide suffer from asthma, with around 4.6 million children in the United States affected by the disease.
“Childhood is a key developmental phase for memory and cognitive skills. However, children with asthma may experience this development at a slower pace,” noted Nicholas Christopher-Hayes, a Ph.D. candidate in psychology at UC Davis and the leading author of the study.
The study involved 2,062 children aged 9 to 10 with asthma to examine how it impacts their episodic memory and other cognitive capabilities. Episodic memory is the type of memory that involves recalling personal experiences and emotions, including the people and events associated with those memories.
The findings revealed that children with asthma performed worse on episodic memory tasks compared to their peers without the condition. In a smaller group of 473 children monitored for two years, those who had asthma from an early age and for an extended time showed a slower progression in memory skills.
Data for this study was obtained from the National Institutes of Health, beginning in 2015, as part of the extensive Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study involving 11,800 children. The analysis ensured that differences in memory and cognitive outcomes could be directly attributed to asthma by comparing children with similar backgrounds.
Potential long-term impacts of asthma
According to the researchers, these memory challenges might have enduring effects. Previous studies on older adults and animals have linked asthma to an increased risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, conditions that heavily impact memory.
“Asthma could put children on a path that raises their likelihood of developing serious conditions like dementia in adulthood,” added Christopher-Hayes.
While this study did not explore the specific reasons behind the memory deficits linked to asthma, researchers suggested several possibilities, including ongoing inflammation from the condition or interruptions in oxygen flow to the brain due to asthma episodes.
Additionally, research on rodents has shown that typical asthma treatments can affect the hippocampus, a critical area of the brain involved in episodic memory for both rodents and humans.
Other contributors to this study include Sarah C. Haynes, Nicholas J. Kenyon, and Julie B. Schweitzer from the UC Davis School of Medicine; and Vidya Merchant from UC Davis. The study received support from UC Davis’s Memory and Plasticity Program, along with a Learning, Memory, and Plasticity Training Program Fellowship from the National Institutes of Health.
