Abstract:
Background: Children's exposure to neurotoxic compounds as pesticide poses a major problem for child health.Objective: To assess the prevalence of indoor pesticide use and the effect of its use on the neurobehavior test battery of  Basic School Children aged 9-13 years. Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted on 260 school age children (9-13) years old in Munshaat Sultan primary and preparatory schools during the period of data collection. All studied children were evaluated through history taking, general and neurological examination. Five neurobehavioral test batteries measure cognitive domain were used to assess the neurobehavioral development. Results: Most of the study participantsreported indoor pesticide use (89%). It was found that indoor pesticide use was significantly higher among participant whose mothers didn't work and having a secondary education (62%, 57%) respectively (p value< 0.05). The studied participants with indoor pesticide use exhibited highly statistically significantly lower performance in neurobehavioral test batteries than non-user. Moreover, there was a statistically significant positive correlation between the number of pesticides' bottles used and neurobehavioral test (Trail making) (p value< 0.001) while this correlation was negative in Digital span, Digital symbols, Similarity test and PASAT (p-value <0.05).  Conclusion: Children exposure to the indoor pesticide is a prevalent problem which had a significant effect on their neurobehaviour. So we recommend to increase the community awareness regarding indoor pesticide use and exposure.

Key Words: Batteries, children, neurobehavior, indoor pesticide.