Poor Air Quality in India Could Cause Cognitive Issues, Hamper Brain Growth in Infants, Finds Study

Researchers from the University of East Anglia in the UK worked with the Community Empowerment Lab in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, to see how in-home air quality affects infants' cognition.

They worked with families from various socio-economic backgrounds in Shivgarh, a rural community in Uttar Pradesh — one of the states in India most strongly impacted by poor air quality.

In the study, the team assessed the visual working memory and visual processing speed of 215 infants using a specially-designed cognition task from October 2017 to June 2019.

"The research for the first time shows that there is an association between poor air quality and impaired visual cognition in the first two years of life when brain growth is at its peak," said lead researcher Prof John Spencer from UEA's School of Psychology.

"Such impacts could carry forward across years, negatively impacting long-term development," he added in the paper published in the journal eLife.

Spencer said previous studies linked poor air quality with cognitive deficits and emotional and behavioural problems in children.

He explained that "tiny particulate fragments in the air are a major concern as they can move from the respiratory tract into the brain".

The team also measured emission levels and air quality using air quality monitors in the children's homes. They also took into account and controlled for family socio-economic status.

"We found that air quality was poorer in homes that used solid cooking materials like cow dung cake," Spencer said. "Therefore, efforts to reduce cooking emissions in homes should be a key target for intervention."

The research also indicates that global efforts to improve air quality could benefit infants' emerging cognitive abilities, he added.

"This, in turn, could have a cascade of positive impacts because improved cognition can lead to improved economic productivity in the long term and reduce the burden on healthcare and mental health systems," Spencer concluded.

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The above article has been published from a wire source with minimal modifications to the headline and text.