Assessment of Cognition and Psychomotor Skills in Anaemic Patients

Anaemia is a common haematological syndrome, which is more prevalent in developing countries like India.. It is characterized by deficiency of Haemoglobin in the blood, which can be caused by either too few Red blood cells or too little Haemoglobin in the cells. Haemoglobin content in the blood determines the quality of blood and quality of blood determines the functioning of different organs of the body and brain is not an exception. Therefore this study has been undertaken to assess the cognition and psychomotor skills in Anaemic patients.

1. To assess the cognition and psychomotor skills in Anaemic patients.

2. To know which of the two is affected more in Anaemia.

The study was conducted on 60 subjects of both genders with mean age of 31.9 years. Anaemia was established in all the subjects by estimation of Haemoglobin content by cyanmethaemoglobin method (spectrophotometric method). Cognition & Psychomotor skills were assessed in test group (Anaemic patients) & control group (Non-anaemic subjects) by: 1. Modified 100 Pin dexterity test 2. Determination of Auditory Reaction Time (ART), Visual Reaction Time (VRT) & Critical Flicker Fusion Frequency (CFFF) Mini mental test.

Auditory and Visual reaction time though appear to be with in normal range in both test and control groups Auditory reaction time is significantly prolonged in test group (p=<0.01). Critical flicker fusion frequency, Pin dexterity and Mini mental test results show no significant difference between test and control group.

In our study we have found that, Anaemia impairs Cognition & psychomotor skills. The impairment of cognition is initiated by prolongation of Auditory reaction time rather than Visual reaction time. Further studies with larger sample size may be required to establish our findings.