Effects of pesticide exposure on neurotoxicity: A bibliometric analysis and cross-sectional study in Indonesia’s rural area, Jember

Context: Pesticide chemicals are commonly used by agricultural workers to eliminate pests, but their use has the potential to cause various neurotoxicity in humans. Aims: To explore the research field related to pesticides and neurotoxicity from a bibliometric and cross-sectional perspective in a rural area of Indonesia, Jember. Methods: Bibliometric analyses using data on pesticide and neurotoxicity-related research publications were obtained from the Scopus Web database and Vosviewer Software. The cross-sectional study was conducted in an agro-industrial area in Jember, Indonesia. It used a structured interview questionnaire regarding demographic data, clinical conditions of neuropathy, and risk factors for neuropathy due to pesticide exposure. Results: A total of 469 publications on pesticides and neurotoxicity were included. The publications were mostly from the United States, India, and the United States. The highest publication affiliation was from INSERM, France. Besides "pesticide" and "neurotoxicity", the terms "oxidative stress", "Parkinson's disease", and "organophosphate" were also the most frequently used keywords. In the Indonesia rural area cross-sectional, there were 55 farmers: 24 (43.6%) farmers were highly exposed, and 31 (56.4%) were not exposed. Most of them (47%) complained of peripheral pain and headache. Based on this study, there was no significant difference between the exposed and non-exposed groups regarding cognitive impairment based on questionnaires Q18, neuropathy symptom score (NSS), and neuropathy deficit score (NDS). Conclusions: This study provides a comprehensive perspective on the current research on pesticides and neurotoxicity. In addition, a cross-sectional study in Jember, Indonesia, showed that pesticide exposure has a cognitive impairment effect on farmers.