Cognitive deficits and educational loss in children with schistosome infection—A systematic review and meta-analysis

<div><p>Background</p><p>By means of meta-analysis of information from all relevant epidemiologic studies, we examined the hypothesis that <i>Schistosoma</i> infection in school-aged children (SAC) is associated with educational loss and cognitive deficits.</p><p>Methodology/Principal findings</p><p>This review was prospectively registered in the PROSPERO database (CRD42016040052). Medline, Biosis, and Web of Science were searched for studies published before August 2016 that evaluated associations between <i>Schistosoma</i> infection and cognitive or educational outcomes. Cognitive function was defined in four domains—learning, memory, reaction time, and innate intelligence. Educational outcome measures were defined as attendance and scholastic achievement. Risk of bias (ROB) was evaluated using the Newcastle-Ottawa quality assessment scale. Standardized mean differences (SMD) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated to compare cognitive and educational measures for <i>Schistosoma</i> infected /not dewormed <i>vs</i>. uninfected/dewormed children. Sensitivity analyses by study design, ROB, and sequential exclusion of individual studies were implemented. Thirty studies from 14 countries, including 38,992 SAC between 5–19 years old, were identified. Compared to uninfected children and children dewormed with praziquantel, the presence of <i>Schistosoma</i> infection and/or non-dewormed status was associated with deficits in school attendance (SMD = -0.36, 95%CI: -0.60, -0.12), scholastic achievement (SMD = -0.58, 95%CI: -0.96, -0.20), learning (SMD = -0.39, 95%CI: -0.70, -0.09) and memory (SMD = -0.28, 95%CI: -0.52, -0.04) tests. By contrast, <i>Schistosoma-</i>infected/non-dewormed and uninfected/dewormed children were similar with respect to performance in tests of reaction time (SMD = -0.06, 95%CI: -0.42, 0.30) and intelligence (SMD = -0.25, 95%CI: -0.57, 0.06). <i>Schistosoma</i> infection-associated deficits in educational measures were robust among observational studies, but not among interventional studies. The significance of infection-associated deficits in scholastic achievement was sensitive to ROB. <i>Schistosoma</i> infection-related deficits in learning and memory tests were invariant by ROB and study design.</p><p>Conclusion/Significance</p><p><i>Schistosoma</i> infection/non-treatment was significantly associated with educational, learning, and memory deficits in SAC. Early treatment of children in <i>Schistosoma-</i>endemic regions could potentially mitigate these deficits.</p><p>Trial registration</p><p>ClinicalTrials.gov <a href="https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/CRD42016040052" target="_blank">CRD42016040052</a></p>