National
iodine deficiency disorders control program
needs to be continuously monitored. Hence, a
cross-sectional study was conducted during the period from April-May 2011 to assess the
prevalence of
goiter, status of urinary
iodine excretion (UIE) level and to estimate
iodine content of
salts at the
household level in Darjeeling district, West Bengal. Study subjects were 2400
school children,
aged 8-10 years selected through “30 cluster” sampling
methodology.
Goiter was assessed by standard
palpation technique, UIE was estimated by wet
digestion method and
salt samples were tested by spot
iodine testing kit. Overall
goiter prevalence rate was 8.7% (95%
confidence intervals = 7.6-9.8) and
goiter prevalence was significantly different with
respect to
gender. Median UIE level was 15.6 mcg/dL (
normal range 10-20 mcg/dL). About 92.6% of the
salt samples tested had adequate
iodine content of ≥15 ppm. Findings of the present study indicate that the district is in a transition phase from
iodine-
deficiency to
iodine sufficiency.