Psychometric Validation of a Questionnaire to Assess Perception and Knowledge About Exposure to Pesticides in Rural Schoolchildren of Maule, Chile.

María Teresa Muñoz-Quezada,María Pía Muñoz,Brittney O Baumert,Rafael J Buralli,Benjamín Castillo,Verónica Iglesias,Asa Bradman,Boris Lucero,Liliana Zúñiga,Carmen Antini

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.715477

Abstract

Exposure to pesticides during infancy is associated with numerous adverse health outcomes. The assessment of knowledge and perception of pesticides exposure and risk among children has not been thoroughly studied. The aim of the study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of a questionnaire that measures the knowledge and perception of exposure to organophosphate pesticides among rural schoolchildren. The questionnaire was administered to 151 schoolchildren between 9 and 13years from four Chilean rural schools. An internal consistency analysis of the ordinal alpha coefficient and a polychoric factor analysis for categorical data were used. The results show that the ordinal alpha was 0.95. Polychoric matrices of rotated components show the 17 questions summarized pesticide knowledge in five factors extracted after promax rotation. This factorial model explains 56.3% of the variance. The questions were grouped as follows: knowledge about pesticides (Factor 1); knowledge of health effects related to pesticides exposure (Factor 2); pesticide exposure through the growing of fruits and vegetables (Factor 3); perception and action against pesticides exposure at school (Factor 4); and perception and action against pesticides exposure at home (Factor 5). The questionnaire provides a useful tool for examining pesticide exposure in agricultural regions, allowing younger community members to participate.

Highlights

Risk is understood as the probability of being damaged by a threat that can cause injury, illness, death, economic loss, or destruction (Miller and Spoolman, 2014)
Three studies conducted in California, United States, examining pesticide exposures in farmworker children showed that prenatal exposure to OP pesticides was consistently associated with poorer neurobehavioral development, including impaired attention and lower verbal and cognitive function scores (Marks et al, 2010; Bouchard et al, 2011; Engel et al, 2011; Sagiv et al, 2018)
We evaluated the reliability and validity of a questionnaire developed to assess children’s perception of OP pesticides exposure used in rural schoolchildren communities in the Maule region of Chile, a densely populated agricultural region and that has the second-highest level of agricultural pesticides sales in the country (Muñoz-Quezada et al, 2019b)

Summary

Introduction

Risk is understood as the probability of being damaged by a threat that can cause injury, illness, death, economic loss, or destruction (Miller and Spoolman, 2014). Exposure to OP pesticides has been linked to poorer cognitive and neurobehavioral development in children (Muñoz-Quezada et al, 2013; van Wendel et al, 2016) and modifications in brain morphology and function (Rauh et al, 2012). Three studies conducted in California, United States, examining pesticide exposures in farmworker children showed that prenatal exposure to OP pesticides was consistently associated with poorer neurobehavioral development, including impaired attention and lower verbal and cognitive function scores (Marks et al, 2010; Bouchard et al, 2011; Engel et al, 2011; Sagiv et al, 2018)

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