Chilipweli Peter M, Ngowi Aiwerasia Vera, Manji Karim
Department of environmental health sciences, Ruaha catholic university (RUCU), P.O.BOX 774, Iringa, Tanzania.
Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, School of Public Health and Social Sciences, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, P.O.BOX 65001, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
BMC Public Health. 2021 Jan 20;21(1):171. doi: 10.1186/s12889-020-10097-6.
Exposure to pesticides with its associated effects prenatally and in early childhood has not received much attention. There is little scientific data on this aspect in Tanzania therefore this study was meant to contribute to the deficit in the subject.
A cross-sectional study was conducted to a sample of 286 participants of mother to child pair, whereby 172 and 114 were exposed and non-exposed respectively. Mothers who had been working in tomato sprayed farms were exposed and mothers who had not been working in the tomato sprayed farms were un-exposed. Child aged 0-6 years was chosen from each mother sampled but only one child found to be the youngest with the classified age was enrolled. Malawi child development Tool (M-DAT) was employed to assess the child level of development, height, and weight of the children were collected and analyzed by the WHO anthropometric calculator. A checklist and questionnaire were used to observe and assess maternal exposure. Bivariate and Multivariate analysis were conducted to assess the relationship between various factors of exposure.
Overall 15% of the children examined were not well developed and the most used pesticides were those posing neuro-development effects. On the bivariate analysis model, mothers who worked while pregnant were more likely to have a child with neuro-developmental effect OR=5.8(1.29-26.3). On multivariate analyses adjusted for age of the mother, variables which remain in the model were a distance from home [AOR=9.4(4.2-20.5)], and working while pregnancy [AOR=5.8(1.29-26.3)] other were removed due to collinearity effect. None of confounders had a potential significant effect but only nutrition seems to be the effect modifier [AOR=7.8(1.29-36.3)] when analyzed with working while pregnancy.
The findings from this study have indicated that maternal pesticide exposure among farmworker residents in the SAGCOT area has a potential association with child developmental effect.
产前及幼儿期接触农药及其相关影响尚未受到太多关注。坦桑尼亚在这方面的科学数据很少，因此本研究旨在弥补这一领域的不足。
对286对母婴样本进行了横断面研究，其中172对为接触组，114对为非接触组。在喷洒过农药的番茄农场工作的母亲为接触组，未在喷洒过农药的番茄农场工作的母亲为非接触组。从每个抽样母亲中选取0至6岁的儿童，但仅纳入一名年龄最小且年龄已分类的儿童。采用马拉维儿童发育工具（M-DAT）评估儿童发育水平，收集儿童身高和体重数据并通过世界卫生组织人体测量计算器进行分析。使用清单和问卷观察并评估母亲的接触情况。进行双变量和多变量分析以评估各种接触因素之间的关系。
总体而言，接受检查的儿童中有15%发育不良，最常用的农药是那些具有神经发育影响的农药。在双变量分析模型中，孕期工作的母亲所生子女出现神经发育影响的可能性更大，比值比（OR）=5.8（1.29 - 26.3）。在对母亲年龄进行调整的多变量分析中，模型中保留的变量是离家距离[AOR = 9.4（4.2 - 20.5）]和孕期工作[AOR = 5.8（1.29 - 26.3）]，其他变量因共线性效应而被剔除。没有混杂因素具有潜在的显著影响，但在与孕期工作一起分析时，似乎只有营养是效应修饰因素[AOR = 7.8（1.29 - 36.3）]。
本研究结果表明，SAGCOT地区农场工人居民中母亲接触农药与儿童发育影响之间存在潜在关联。
