The negative impact of living environment on intelligence quotient of primary school children in Baghdad City, Iraq: a cross-sectional study

BMC Public Health

Mohammed A Abdalqader²  Azmi Mohd Tamil²  Shamsul Azhar Shah²  Syed Aljunid¹  Zaleha Md Isa²  Hasanain Faisal Ghazi¹ 

[1] United Nations University, International Institute for Global Health, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia;Department of Community Health, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

关键词: Primary school children;    Living environment;    IQ;    Baghdad City;   

Others  :  1163413
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-12-562

 received in 2012-03-16, accepted in 2012-07-13,  发布年份 2012

【 摘 要 】

Background

Environmental factors play a very important role in the child development process, especially in a situation like that of Iraq. Thirteen years of economic sanctions followed by the 2003 war and 8 years of unstable security have affected the daily life of Iraqi families and children. The objective of this study was to assess the associations between living environment domains and child intelligence quotient (IQ) score.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 529 children aged 7–8 years from five primary schools in Baghdad during September–October, 2011. The five schools represent people living a range of conditions, and include of both high and low socio-economic groups. Living environment was assessed by 13 questionnaire items, consists of three domains: physical safety , mental stress and public services. While IQ was assessed by Raven Colored progressive matrices.

Results

Among the participants, 22% were of low intelligence versus 77% of high intelligence and 19% lived in a poor environment. There were significant associations between the mental stress and service living environment domains and child IQ (p = 0.009 and p = 0.001, respectively).

Conclusion

In Iraq, child IQ was found to be associated with the mental stress and service domains of the living environment. This study findings will help authorities in their efforts to improve living environment.

【 授权许可】

   
2012 Ghazi et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1 .

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