IMPACT OF MALNUTRITION ON NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL
DEVELOPMENT OF SCHOOL CHILDREN
Tawfik A.*, Mahfouz R.*, Soliman H.* and Saleh S.**
*Neurology and Psychiatry Department, El Minia University, El Minia,
Egypt.
** Pediatric Department, El Minia University, El Minia, Egypt
Objectives: In the present study
we investigated the impact of malnutrition on neuropsycological development
of children in a rural area in El-Minia governorate of Egypt.
Methods: The study group
consisted of 118 primary school children, out of which 74 (62.8%) were
malnurished while 44 (37.2%) were not. All subjects were submitted to
neurological examination for soft neurological signs (SNS), pectorial
intelligence test, motor free visual perception test and taken test for
children.
Results: Analyses of data
obtained from this study have shown the following:
1. increased
prevalence of SNS among the malnourished (26.2%) compared to well nourished
children (2.3%).
2. Malnourished
children also showed lower levels of intelligance (p = < 0.01) and
language comperhension (p = < 0.001) than well nouriched children, while
visual perception reflected non-significant difference between the two
groups (p > 0.05).
3. Those children
with positive SNS were at a consistent disadvantage in relation to intelligence,
pereception and language comprehension test compared to those who where
neurological normal although the difference did not reach convention levels
of statsical significance.
Conclusion: These results may
indicate that malnutrition affected grossly CNS maturation and cognetive
functions in children. It was also noted that verbal functions, which may
interfere with learning process, were sensitive to changes in nutritional
status, while perceptual functions were not.