Objective To analyze the
iodine nutritional status of
children and
pregnant women in Liaoning Province,and the
iodine content of edible
salt suitable for
iodine nutrition level,to provide a basis for adjusting the suitable
salt iodine content standard of key
population.
Methods In 2015-2018,a
cross-sectional survey method was used to conduct
iodine nutritional status surveys in counties (districts) within the jurisdiction of Liaoning Province.One township (
community) was selected in each county (district)according to the east,west,south,north,and middle directions.Forty
children aged 8-10 (age and
gender distribution balanced) and 20
pregnant women were selected in each township (
community),
urine and
household salt samples were collected from
children and
pregnant women,to test
urine and
salt iodine levels;and the
water samples from all township (
community)
water supply plants in the province were collected for
water iodine detection in 2017;and all
respondents were calculated the dietary
iodine intake.The multi-order linear curve was used to fit the
salt iodine content suitable for
children and
pregnant women.Results A total of 1 549 townships (
communities) were surveyed,including 1 125 centralized
water supply townships (
communities) with
water iodine < 40 μg/L;50 820
children aged 8-10 and 26 707
pregnant women were selected from the centralized
water supply towns.The average
iodine content of edible
salt was 24.0 and 23.9 mg/kg,respectively.The median urinary
iodine level of
children was 168.5 μg/L,at the appropriate level of
iodine;the median urinary
iodine level of
pregnant women was 137.8 μg/L,at the
deficiency level of
iodine.The average
dietary intake of
iodine in
children was 228.4 μg/d,which was 3.51 times of the standard
iodine requirement (
EAR,65 μg/d) and 2.54 times of the recommended intake (RNI,90 μ g/d).The average
dietary intake of
iodine in
pregnant women was 273.4 μg/d,which was 1.71 times of the
EAR (160 μg/d) and 1.19 times of the RNI (230 μg/d),and 21.4% (5 728/26 707) of
pregnant women had lower
iodine intake than RNI,the
iodine intake was insufficient.After multi-level linear curve fitting combined with
monitoring data,the
iodine content range of edible
salt in
children's
urine was suitable and the
iodine intake in RNI-tolerable intake (UL,300 μg/d) was 13-25 mg/kg (20 mg/kg + 20%);the
iodine content range of edible
salt in
pregnant women's urinary
iodine was suitable and the
iodine intake in RNI-UL (600 μg/d) is 25-37 mg/kg (31 mg/kg + 20%).Conclusions Under the current
salt iodine content standard (25 mg/kg) in Liaoning Province,
children's
iodine nutrition is generally at the level of
iodine appropriate;
pregnant women's
iodine nutrition is generally at the level of
iodine deficiency.It is recommended that all regions should revise the
iodine content standard for edible
salt in due
course in combination with the
iodine nutritional status of key
populations within the jurisdiction.