Childhood asthma and mental retardation.
Four hundred consecutive outpatients seen at the Children's Psychiatric Research Institute, London, Ont., were investigated to determine whether there is a negative correlation between childhood asthma and mental retardation. Of these, 380 were mentally retarded and 20 were of normal intelligence. Only two cases of childhood asthma were found. One of these had an I.Q. of 108 and the other 78, so that no case of asthma was found in the mentally retarded group. On the basis of a reported prevalence rate for asthma of 1.76%, one would expect six or seven cases among the 400. By contrast, among the approximately 800 parents there were 11 cases of chronic asthma, a figure which is approximately the expected number.
D001249:Asthma / Q000150:complications*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000150:complications*