Effects of early cerebral malaria on cognitive ability in Senegalese children.
Twenty-nine Senegalese children with a history of cerebral malaria (CM) performed more poorly on the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) Simultaneous Processing domain and on the Test of Variables of Attention (TOVA) attention capacity indicators in comparison with a matched control group. Thus, CM can disrupt neuropsychological integration during critical developmental periods, impacting on global neurological integrity, attentional vigilance, perceptual acuity, and subsequent development of visual-spatial processing and memory foundational to global cognitive ability. A subsequent structural equation model confirmed that rural children are at greater risk for CM, subsequent attention deficits, and other developmental risk factors in addition to the CM impact on K-ABC performance. We document CM as one of a host of developmental risk factors within the complex web of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, which limit children's ability to achieve their full intellectual potential and, thus, extend the human cost of the disease beyond general measures of mortality and morbidity.
Boivin
Michael J
MJ
Department of Psychology, Indiana Wesleyan University, Marion, Indiana 46953, USA. mboivin@indwes.edu
D001929:Brain Edema / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000469:parasitology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016779:Malaria, Cerebral / Q000150:complications* / Q000208:ethnology*; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012675:Senegal / Q000453:epidemiology; D013997:Time Factors