Determination of the Urinary Iodine (UI) Level and Iodine Deficiency Disorders (IDD) Prevalence in a Cohort of Pregnant Women in the United Arab Emirates.

ABSTRACT

Objectives: To estimate iodine intake and excretion, to assess their association and to evaluate the compliance of the recommendations in a multicentre cohort of pregnant women in the United Arab Emirates. Methods: A cross-sectional study performed on pregnant women in the United Arab Emirate multicentre cohort of pregnant women Information on iodine intake from diet, salt and supplements was collected through questionnaires. Spot urine samples were analysed for urinary iodine concentration (UIC). Urinary Iodine excretion was measured for 752 pregnant women who were randomly selected using a probability-proportional-to-size sampling methodology. Results: The result shows that more than 51% of the samples were with ioduria below 150 μg/L, the number of samples with adequate iodine content in urine were only 23 % the number of pregnant women with ioduria above the requirement were 17% and the excessive intake was at 7.3%. Conclusions: Provission of adeqate iodine nutrition with massive national Education & communication campaign and promote community awareness of the importance of the use of nutrients rich in ioidne and iodized salt and the hazardous effects of inappropriate or inadequately iodized salt intake targeting women.