Ability and Adjustment of Children Who Have Had Measles

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Abstract
The National Survey of Health and Development provides information about the history of measles, and the educational progress and emotional stability of 3,729 children who were followed up over a period of 15 years. There is no suggestion from this survey that children who have measles are impaired in their later educational progress. Those who get measles early, before the age of 2, do rather worse in tests of mental ability and school performance than the rest of the children, but this is sufficiently explained by their adverse home circumstances. There is also no evidence from this survey that children who get measles early show an excess of later abnormalities of behavior; indeed, those who get measles late are more nervous than the rest, perhaps because they have been over-protected in infancy and childhood. These conclusions are compatible with those of the much larger survey made by Miller (1964) on the frequency of complications in measles in 1963. He notes that measles yields a formidable toll of complications; however, most patients recover completely, though in an important minority permanent disabilities may result. This is no doubt a correct assessment, but in a survey of only 3,729 children these serious complications are rare and the great majority of children who have measles do not suffer any detectable educational or behavioral handicaps.