Medicine
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This repository contains the published and unpublished research of the Faculty of Medicine by the staff members of the faculty
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Item Short-term impact of an acute attack of malaria on the cognitive performance of school children living in a malaria-endemic area of Sri Lanka(Oxford University Press, 2003) Fernando, D.; de Silva, D.; Wickremasinghe, R.A prospective study was conducted from January 1998 to November 1999 in a malaria-endemic area of Sri Lanka to determine the short-term impact of an acute attack of malaria on the cognitive performance of 648 schoolchildren attending grades 1 to 5 (mostly aged 6-11 years) in 4 schools. Three groups were studied comprising children with malaria, children with non-malarial fever, and healthy controls. Cognitive performance in language and mathematics at the time of presentation and 2 weeks later was assessed. At the time of presentation, children with malaria scored significantly less in both mathematics and language than children with non-malarial fever and healthy controls. Two weeks later, the mathematics and language scores of children with malaria improved but the scores were significantly lower than the scores of children with non-malarial fever (P < 0.001) and controls (P < 0.001). Having malaria was a significant predictor of cognitive performance after controlling for other confounding factors. These findings suggest that an acute attack of uncomplicated malaria causes significant short-term impairment of cognitive performance. The impairment persists for more than 2 weeks and appears to be cumulative with repeated attacks of malaria.Item The impact of repeated malaria attacks on the school performance of children(American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2003) Fernando, S.D.; Gunawardena, D.M.; Bandara, M.R.; de Silva, D.; Carter, R.; Mendis, K.N.; Wickremasinghe, A.R.The impact of repeated malarial infections on the school performance of children was investigated in 571 school children 6-14 years of age in a malaria-endemic area in southern Sri Lanka where both Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax infections are prevalent. Malaria infections confirmed by microscopy were monitored over a six-year period. School performance was assessed by two specially designed, school grade-specific, test papers for Sinhala language and mathematics. The scores for Sinhala language and mathematics for each school term test for the year 1997 were obtained. Malarial infections were a major predictor of children's performance in language and mathematics after controlling for parent's education, monthly family income, and house type. The education of the father predicted language scores but not mathematics scores. A child who experienced more than five attacks of malaria scored approximately 15 percent less than a child who experienced less than three attacks of malaria. The data suggest that repeated attacks of malaria have an adverse impact on the school performance of children.