Measuring Behavior 2005: Wu Hai-Lei et al.

Primary analysis of the effects of air pollution on children’s neurobehavioral functions

H.L. Wu, J.L. Zhang, Y.H. Hu

Department of Occupational & Environmental Health Science, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, China

To explore the latent impairments of air pollution , especially traffic exhausts on neurobehavioral function of children by NES-C3 (computer-administered neurobehavioral evaluation system-Chinese 2000), two primary schools were chosen according to the air quality report in Beijing. One is located at seriously polluted district, the other is at less polluted district. All children in grade three and grade four total 202 were selected as our objects. Of them 111 were in the low exposure area, 91 in the high exposure areas. The survey was conducted based on the agreement of the children’s parents. Questionnaires were completed by children’s parents. Memory scanning, continuous performance, two-digit search, line discrimination, visual simple reaction time and curve coincidence were measured by NES-C3 while the 24 hour NO2 and SO2 exposure levels of all children was measured by personal passive sampler. Neurobehavioral Ability Index(NAI) was calculated according to the equation, NAI=[100-(Tt+SD*WN)]/correct/CTS. Here Tt refers to total reaction time(seconds), SD to Correct Coefficient (0.116 seconds/time), WN to wrong number; Correct to correct number; CTS to scatter for the mean reaction time of correct (seconds/times). It was indicated by stratified analyzing that NAIs wwere significantly higher in low exposure group than those in high exposure group in continuous performance, line discrimination, visual simple reaction time (left-hand), curve coincidence, two-digit search and memory scanning. Which suggested that neurobehavioral functions of children (such as attention, psychology-movement and vision apperceive) in high exposure group may damaged compared with children in low exposure group.

Paper presented at Measuring Behavior 2005 , 5^th International Conference on Methods and Techniques in Behavioral Research, 30 August - 2 September 2005, Wageningen, The Netherlands.