Changing Prevalence of Iodine Deficiency Disorders in Bhavnagar District.

ABSTRACT

Research Question What is the situation of iodine deficiency disorder (IDD) and salt consumption in Bhavnagar district? Hypothesis: The prevalence of IDD has increased markedly as a result of medical as well as socio-economic factors. Objective: To assess the magnitude of IDD in Bhavnagar district and also assess the salt consumption patterns in the region. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Primary schools in rural areas. Study Tools Clinical examination of study population for goitre, laboratory assessment of casual urine sample for urinary iodine estimation of I2 content of salt samples collected from sub-samples of study population. Participants: Study was conducted among 2,940 School children in the age group of 6-12 years were selected for study using WHO 30-cluster methodology, urine samples were collected from 15% of selected children and salt samples from 43% of sub-sample. Ethical Concern No ethical issues were involved. Results: An overall goitre prevalence of 34.19% was observed in the region. Females had a prevalence of 32.9% and males 35.4%. The median urinary iodine excretion in the region was 11.0 μg/l (range 29.0-190.0 μg/l). Ninty-seven percent of subjects had biochemical iodine deficiency with 73.87% having severe deficiency, 21.38% having moderate and 4.04% mild iodine deficiency. In Bhavnagar region, only 34.27% households consume powdered salt having an Iodine content of greater than 15 ppm. Conclusion: Present study showed severe goiter prevalence in primary school children in Bhavnagar district.