ABSTRACT
This study was designed to determine the prevalence of neurobehavioral symptoms among sixth grade primary school students with low scholastic achievement in Assiut city at Upper Egypt. This is a cross sectional study conducted among 4363 six grade students at 38 governmental primary schools in Assiut City screening of neurobehavioral symptoms that may be associated with low scholastic achievement [school marks;<70% in previous year] compared to students with school marks >/= 70% out of 1120 students 762 students proved to have low scholastic achievements and another 600 students with good scholastic achievement were randomly selected as control group. Both groups were screened for neurobehavioral symptoms by application of 1] validated standardized Arabic screening questions aire for screening most common neurological disorders [El-Tallway et al., 2010] followed by complete clinical and neurological assessment for those who screened positive for any of neurological disorders 2]. Child behavior checklist [youth form][Achenbach, 1991]. 3] Assessment of socioeconomic state by using socioeconomic scale [Abd-Eltawab, 2010].4] Assessment of reading skills by using Schonell's test. 5] Assessment of intelligence level by application of Stand ford Binet 4th edition. Out of 4363 students, 1120 students were identified with low scholastic achievement, with prevalence rate [25.7%]. It was higher among males than females [66.8% and 33.2% respectively]. About 25.1% of them had neurological disorders whereas headache was the most frequent symptom followed by nocturnal enuresis and epilepsy [14%; 7.2% and 3.1% respectively]. There is significant difference in all scales among poor and good academic achievers [P<0.001] with higher scores of externalized syndromes than that of internalized syndromes [12.1 +/- 4 vs. 8.6 +/- 3.6 respectively] among poor achievers. Most of these students [99%] had below average intelligence [IQ scores<90] and higher behavior problem scores. Moreover, more than two thirds of them [73.2%] were poor readers. High prevalence rate of neurobehavioral symptoms was recorded among students with low scholastic achievement compared to students with normal scholastic achievement. Early identification of those high risky students and early intervention by primary care physician in schools could improve their scholastic achievement and education system outcome