Effect analysis of environmental factors on the children’s Amazon community neuropsychomotor development

  Introduction: The early years of a child’s life are marked by a significant development, as well as high sensitivity to environmental influences such as poverty, housing, quality and family structure. Thus, the identification of environmental risk factors and delayed neurodevelopment, coupled with early intervention, are essential for an healthy development. Objective: To analyze the effect of environmental factors on the neuropsychomotor development of children in the Amazon community. Methods: This is a quantitative and qualitative study of analytical and cross-sectional approach with 50 children between 24 and 36 months of age, of both sexes, living in an Amazonian community. Two types of the socio-economic-environmental questionnaire were used; a) Infant/Toddler (IT) HOME Inventory to analyze the quality of the family environment; b) the Denver Screening Test II for screening neurodevelopment. Also, a descriptive analysis was performed using a calculation of means and standard deviations. Results: The study found that a significant majority of the children had normal neuropsychomotor development; however, children classified as delayed, the more significant impact variable in the development was the quality of the family environment, which in turn was influenced by the lower economic class, lack of water treatment, lack of electricity and external toilet. Conclusion: Environmental factors were not significant on the neuropsychomotor development of the local children of the Amazon community.