eMedicineLive

A study conducted among 5 to 6 year old children attending first year of school in New Zealand, which has one of the highest rates of childhood asthma showed that asthmatic children are likely to be > 6 months behind non-asthmatic children in the reading skills. There was no difference in the math skills between the two groups. It is important to mention here that previous studies among children with asthma didn't reveal any lag in learning or educational attainment in school compared to normal counterparts.

The researchers used questionnaire based on Intervention of asthma and allergies in children (ISAAC trial) and the children underwent standard measurement of intelligence and learning based on wechler intelligence scale both at the school entry and one year afterwards. Researchers claim that asthma was associated with low achievement in reading skills at the end of one year of school even after discounting other factors like high absenteesim, low socioeconomic status, single parent family and poor readiness prior to school. The authors suggest the possible reasons could be presence of other health problems including sleep deprivation, rhinitis and obesity, uncontrolled asthma, medication effects and psychosocial factors. More research is needed to find the causes and address this issue.

Reference
http://chestjournal.chestpubs.org/content/early/2010/06/15/chest.10-0543.abstract