MEASLES AND READINESS FOR READING AND LEARNING

• Published in: American journal of epidemiology 1968-11, Vol.88 (3), p.359-367
• Main Authors: FOX, JOHN P., BLACK, FRANCIS L., KOGON, ALFRED
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0002-9262; 1476-6256
• DOI: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a120896

Fox, J. P. (Univ, of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Wash. 98105), F. L Black and A. Kogon. Measles and readiness for reading and learning. V. Evaluative comparison of the studies and overall conclusions. Amer. J. Epid., 1968, 88: 359–367. —Although alike in basic design, the three studies differ in important respects other than the results obtained. Information concerning covariants was fully available in New Haven (NH) and Seattle (S) but parental education could not be ascertained in Wappingers Central (WC). The NH study population contained a high proportion of non-whites and represented a wide range of cultural and socio-economic strata and individual school populations differed greatly in these respects. In both the WC and S studies, substantial differences also existed between school communities in respect to environmental factors and in the prior incidence of measles but these were less in S. This fact, plus the absence of a significant “mumps effect”, suggests that important environmental influences were most fully accounted for in S and, hence, that the S results, indicating no overall measles effect, are the most valid. However, acceptance of the S results does not exclude the possibilities that: 1) measles induces a transitory or age-dependent effect ontheCNS functions measured; 2) that the postulated effect requires an additional factor not present in S; 3) that strains of measles virus active in S were of lesser neurovirulence; or 4) measles affects some aspect of CNS function not measured by the tests employed.