IQ Scores of Children with Moderate Asthma: A Comparison with Healthy Children.

OBJECTIVE Intelligence quotient is an indicator of one's efficacy and many factors including chronic diseases may impact upon it. This study aims to compare the IQ of children diagnosed with moderate asthma to the IQ of healthy children. METHODS This comparative study was conducted between June 2011 and January 2012 in an Academic Referral Clinic. In this study, 114 patients aged 6 to 13 years who were diagnosed with moderate asthma were compared with 90 age and sex matched healthy patients from their families. Wechsler intelligence scale for children was used by split half method to calculate the overall IQ, verbal IQ and practical IQ. The t-test and Chi square test were used to analyze quantitative variables and qualitative variables, respectively. RESULTS In this study, 204 children, 114 (56%) in the case group and 90 children (44%) in the control group participated in comparing their IQs. One hundred and fifteen (56%) were males and 89 (44%) were females. The overall IQs of asthmatic patients and healthy patients were 109 and 108, respectively; the difference was not significant (p=0.905). Furthermore, there was no significant difference in the IQ scores between males and females. CONCLUSION Although asthma is a chronic disease and causes many respiratory problems, it has no negative impact on IQ.