Several studies have shown that riverside children from Amazon are exposed to mercury at levels that can be harm to the development. Although, no previous study evaluated the consequences of exposure to the neurodevelopment of this population. The methods used did not take into account the different interfering factors in the child development. We aim to assess the children's motor development and its relation to mercury exposure, nutritional status and socioeconomic profile of the families of local children in two different geographic regions of Pará, Tapajós river basin (São Luiz do Tapajós and Barreiras communities) and Tocantins river basin (Furo do Maracujá community). The demographic and socioeconomic information of families were obtained through the ABEP socioeconomic questionnaire, 2012. For the analysis of anthropometric measurements the WHO AnthroPlus v 1.0.2 software was used (for children above 5 years). Hair sample were used to quantify the total Hg analysis by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. To analyze the children development was used the Test of Gross Motor Development - Second Edition (TGMD-2) Ulrich (2000). The mercury exposure levels of children in the Tapajos were significantly higher than the children from Tocantins. In all schoolchildren groups the social status were categorized as very poor. Children from São Luiz do Tapajós had higher frequency of underweight and stunting than the other children population. In the overall assessment, Barreiras community showed better performance in manipulative skills, locomotor and gross motor coefficient than the others. There was no difference between the children of São Luiz do Tapajós and Furo do Maracujá that had the worst performers. There was no difference between the children from São Luiz do Tapajós and Furo Maracujá. The correlation between the total Hg and motor development markers was observed in Barreiras, while between body mass index and developing markers were observed in the Furo do Maracujá and Barreiras. These results suggest the influence of mercury on the motor development of school, alone and in association with nutritional factors. The TGMD2 is a viable technique in the evaluation of riparian school engine development and may be recommended for other groups of children with similar socioeconomic conditions for this study.
|
