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Tap Water Consumption Is Associated with Schoolchildren’s Cognitive Deficits in Afghanistan

Environmental influence on intelligence quotient (IQ) is poorly understood in developing countries. We conducted the first cross-sectional investigation to assess the role of socio-economic and environmental factors on schoolchildren’s IQ in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. A representative sample of 245 sch...

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Autores principales: Shinwari, Abdullah, Véron, Alain, Abdianwall, Mohammad Haris, Jouve, Elisabeth, Laporte, Remi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9321136/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35886101
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148252
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author Shinwari, Abdullah
Véron, Alain
Abdianwall, Mohammad Haris
Jouve, Elisabeth
Laporte, Remi
author_facet Shinwari, Abdullah
Véron, Alain
Abdianwall, Mohammad Haris
Jouve, Elisabeth
Laporte, Remi
author_sort Shinwari, Abdullah
collection PubMed
description Environmental influence on intelligence quotient (IQ) is poorly understood in developing countries. We conducted the first cross-sectional investigation to assess the role of socio-economic and environmental factors on schoolchildren’s IQ in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. A representative sample of 245 schoolchildren aged 7–15 was randomly selected in five schools. Children’s records included: non-verbal IQ TONI-1 scale, body mass index, socio-economic status, and further environmental indicators (water supply, proximity to a heavy-traffic road, use of surma traditional cosmetics). The mean age of the children was 11.7 years old (±2.0 years), and 70.2% and 29.8% were male and female, respectively. The children’s mean IQ was 83.8 (±12.6). In total, 37 (14.9%) of the children were overweight, 78 (31.5%) were living below the USD 1.25 poverty line, 133 (53.6%) used tap water supply, 76 (30.6%) used surma, and 166 (66.9%) were exposed to heavy road traffic. The children’s IQ was significantly and independently lowered by tap water use (−3.9; 95% CI [−7.1; −0.6]) and by aging (−1.4; 95% CI [−2.2; −0.6]), as revealed in multivariate analysis, independently of gender, socio-economic status, exposure to heavy road traffic, overweight status, and surma use. Lower IQ among older children is possibly attributed to chronic stress experienced by adolescents due to living conditions in Afghanistan. While using tap water prevents fecal peril, it may expose children to toxic elements such as lead which is known to lower their intellectual development.
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spelling pubmed-93211362022-07-27 Tap Water Consumption Is Associated with Schoolchildren’s Cognitive Deficits in Afghanistan Shinwari, Abdullah Véron, Alain Abdianwall, Mohammad Haris Jouve, Elisabeth Laporte, Remi Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Environmental influence on intelligence quotient (IQ) is poorly understood in developing countries. We conducted the first cross-sectional investigation to assess the role of socio-economic and environmental factors on schoolchildren’s IQ in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. A representative sample of 245 schoolchildren aged 7–15 was randomly selected in five schools. Children’s records included: non-verbal IQ TONI-1 scale, body mass index, socio-economic status, and further environmental indicators (water supply, proximity to a heavy-traffic road, use of surma traditional cosmetics). The mean age of the children was 11.7 years old (±2.0 years), and 70.2% and 29.8% were male and female, respectively. The children’s mean IQ was 83.8 (±12.6). In total, 37 (14.9%) of the children were overweight, 78 (31.5%) were living below the USD 1.25 poverty line, 133 (53.6%) used tap water supply, 76 (30.6%) used surma, and 166 (66.9%) were exposed to heavy road traffic. The children’s IQ was significantly and independently lowered by tap water use (−3.9; 95% CI [−7.1; −0.6]) and by aging (−1.4; 95% CI [−2.2; −0.6]), as revealed in multivariate analysis, independently of gender, socio-economic status, exposure to heavy road traffic, overweight status, and surma use. Lower IQ among older children is possibly attributed to chronic stress experienced by adolescents due to living conditions in Afghanistan. While using tap water prevents fecal peril, it may expose children to toxic elements such as lead which is known to lower their intellectual development. MDPI 2022-07-06 /pmc/articles/PMC9321136/ /pubmed/35886101 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148252 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Shinwari, Abdullah
Véron, Alain
Abdianwall, Mohammad Haris
Jouve, Elisabeth
Laporte, Remi
Tap Water Consumption Is Associated with Schoolchildren’s Cognitive Deficits in Afghanistan
title Tap Water Consumption Is Associated with Schoolchildren’s Cognitive Deficits in Afghanistan
title_full Tap Water Consumption Is Associated with Schoolchildren’s Cognitive Deficits in Afghanistan
title_fullStr Tap Water Consumption Is Associated with Schoolchildren’s Cognitive Deficits in Afghanistan
title_full_unstemmed Tap Water Consumption Is Associated with Schoolchildren’s Cognitive Deficits in Afghanistan
title_short Tap Water Consumption Is Associated with Schoolchildren’s Cognitive Deficits in Afghanistan
title_sort tap water consumption is associated with schoolchildren’s cognitive deficits in afghanistan
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9321136/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35886101
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148252
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