Children who suffer from recurrent fever and inflammation may show impaired cognitive ability, according to a new study conducted in Bangladesh by University medical researchers.
The findings, published online by the journal BMC Pediatrics, indicate that the longer infants suffered from fevers, the worse they performed on developmental tests. The research clarifies, perhaps for the first time, the link between peripheral cytokine levels, which mediate fever induction, and improved cognitive development in humans.
“We are interested in the question of why millions of young children who grow up in poverty are not reaching their full potentials,” said lead study author Nona Jiang, University alumna. “Early childhood is a critical time of neurodevelopment, and it is also a time when the developing brain is particularly vulnerable to outside insults. Our team was interested in studying whether systemic inflammation in children living in poverty, possibly from exposure to infectious diseases, is associated with developmental outcomes.”
About 28 million Bangladeshis, 20 percent of the population, live in hard-to-reach areas that make up a quarter of the country’s land area, according to a study by the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program.
“Our findings suggest that immune-mediated inflammation could potentially explain the poor developmental outcomes of children in low- and middle-income countries,” Jiang said. “These results also suggest that we could promote the healthy neurodevelopment of children living in poverty through preventing excessive inflammation.”
Access to good nutrition, clean water, sanitation and developmental stimulation are critical for future learning, University researcher Dr. Rebecca Scharf said in an e-mail.
“By studying which early childhood influences are associated with hindrances to growth and learning, we will know better where to target interventions for the critical period of early childhood,” Scharf said.
The findings may generate ways to reduce developmental problems in children in developing countries, Scharf said.
“We hope to continue to look at predictors of healthy child development so that key areas to target for intervention can be identified,” she said.
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