Asthma is associated with memory problems in children, a new study has found.

Further, the early onset of asthma might worsen potential memory deficits in kids, researchers found.

This is the first study to make such a connection, researchers said.

“This study underscores the importance of looking at asthma as a potential source of cognitive difficulty in children,” said senior researcher Simona Ghetti, a professor of psychology in the University of California-Davis Center for Mind and Brain.

“We are becoming increasingly aware that chronic diseases, not only asthma but also diabetes, heart disease and others may place children at increased risk of cognitive difficulties,” Ghetti added in a news release. “We need to understand the factors that might exacerbate or protect against the risks.”

For the study, researchers analyzed data from more than 2,000 9- and 10-year-olds with asthma. In the U.S., roughly 4.6 million children have asthma.

“Childhood is a period of rapid improvement in memory and, more generally, cognition. In children with asthma that improvement may be slower,” lead researcher Nicholas Christopher-Hayes, a doctoral candidate in psychology at UC Davis, said in a news release.

His team found that children with asthma had lower scores in tests of episodic memory, the specific type of memory related to experiences and emotions.

In a smaller sample of nearly 500 kids followed for two years, researchers found children with earlier asthma onset also had slower development of memory over time.

The research team said these memory deficits in childhood might have long-term consequences.

Asthma in older adults has been associated with a greater risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, they noted.

“Asthma might set children on a trajectory that could increase their risk to later develop something more serious like dementia as adults,” Christopher-Hayes said.

These memory problems might be caused by prolonged inflammation caused by asthma, or by repeated disruptions in oxygen supply to the brain from asthma attacks, researchers speculated.

Research in lab mice also has found that common asthma drugs can affect the hippocampus, a region in the brain that plays a fundamental role in memory, the team noted.

The new study appears in JAMA Network Open.