Study of intelligence and psychomotor function in children aged 6 - 15 years and born pre and post universal salt iodization in Henan province in 2009 / 中国地方病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective Investigation and analysis of intelligence and psychomotor function in children born after implementingt universal salt iodization(USI). Methods Historical serious illness areas of water iodine below 10μg/L were selected as study sites, water iodine in 50 - 100 μg/L in the historical non-endemic areas were as control points in Henan, 2008. Cluster sampling was used to select children aged 6 - 15 years as observing subjects,IQ were measured with CRT- Man Test(CRT-C2). A "Tianjin Medical psychomotor test battery" (JPB) was carry out to test psychomotor function. Results In IDD regions 230 children were surveyed post-USI and 1284 children preUSI. The IQs post and pre USI were 99.3 and 99.9, respectively, and the proportion of IQ ≤69 were 2.17%(6/230) and 2.80%(36/1284), respectively. In non-IDD regions 650 children were surveyed post-USI and 2079children pre-USI. The IQs post and pre USI were 95.3 and 93.8, respectively, and the proportion of IQ ≤ 69 were 2.31%(15/650) and 3.37%(70/2079), respectively. In IDD regions, the abnormal rate of T scores and damage index post USI were 3.6%(2/56), 5.3%(3/56), respectively, significantly lower than pre USI [18.1%(29/160),18.1%(29/160), x2 = 7.54, 6.86, all P ＜ 0.01]. Conclusions USI could increase the IQs of children and decrease the positive rate of JPB, and significantly improve the quality of whole nation and persistently eliminating IDD.