Heavy schistosomiasis associated with poor short-term memory and slower reaction times in Tanzanian schoolchildren
Jukes,Matthew / 2002

Cross-sectional studies of the relationship between helminth infection and cognitive function can be informative in ways that treatment studies cannot. However, interpretation of results of many previous studies has been complicated by the failure to control for many potentially confounding variables. We gave Tanzanian schoolchildren aged 9±14 a battery of 11 cognitive and three educational tests and assessed their level of helminth infection. We also took measurements of an extensive range of potentially confounding or mediating factors such as socioeconomic and educational factors, anthropometric and other biomedical measures.