It remains unknown whether subpopulations of children with AD face a greater risk for cognitive impairment or not. To determine the association, researchers drew from a weighted sample of 69,732,807 children with AD in the 2021 US National Health Interview Survey. Main outcomes of interest were difficulty in learning or memory (cognitive impairment symptoms) as reported by the child's caregiver.
The researchers performed logistic regression to compare the odds of learning or memory difficulties between 60,509,794 children without AD and 9,223,013 children with AD.Children with vs without AD were more likely to experience difficulties with learning (10.8% vs 5.9% ;, researchers found that having AD was associated with increased odds of difficulties in learning (adjusted odds ratio , 1.77; 95% CI, 1.28-2.45) and memory (AOR, 1.69; 95% CI, 1.19-2.41). When stratified by neurodevelopmental comorbidities, having AD was associated with a 2- to 3-fold greater odds of memory difficulties among children with any neurodevelopmental disorder (AOR, 2.26; 95% CI, 1.43-