Elimination of iodine deficiency disorders in Delhi.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: The present study was conducted in year 2002 in NCT of Delhi with the objective to re-assess the prevalence of iodine deficiency disorders. METHODS: A total of 7009 children in the age group of 6-11 years were clinically examined for presence of goiter. A total of 991 salt samples were also collected randomly. On the spot casual urine samples were collected from 1395 children. RESULTS: The total goiter prevalence was found to be 6.2%. The percentage of children with urinary iodine excretion (UIE) of < 20.0, 20.0- < 50.0, 50.0-99.9 and 100.0 microg/l and above was 0.8, 1.8, 8.7 and 88.7%, respectively. The median UIE level was 200 microg/L. The assessment of iodine content of salt revealed that only 16% of the families were consuming salt with iodine content less than 5 ppm. CONCLUSION: The findings of the present study indicated that the population is in a transition phase from iodine deficient (as revealed by Total Goiter Prevalence) to iodine sufficient nutriture (as revealed by median UIE 200 microg/l). A significant progress has been achieved towards elimination of IDD from NCT of Delhi.