The effect of health education intervention on iodine deficiency disorders in Chinese pupils and housewives:a Meta-analysis / 中华地方病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To comprehensively evaluate the effect of health education on intervening iodine deficiency disorders(IDD) in Chinese pupils and housewives,and to provide a basis for prevention and intervention of the disease.Methods A computerized literature search was carried out in Chinese Biomedical Database (CBM),Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI),VIP,Wangfang and PubMed to collect articles published from 1997-2012 concerning the effect of education intervention on iodine deficiency disorders (IDD).The study was a self-controlled intervention study.Meta-analyses were performed to assess the knowledge on IDD prevention and behavior changes.Fixed and random effect models were employed to combine results after a heterogeneity test,and rate different(RD) was used as an indicator of the intervention effect.Results A total of 20 controlled before and after studies were included in our meta-analysis.The quality of individual studies was assessed by EPOC,and all studies were grade B.Because the heterogeneity was higher,each knowledge point was stratified analyzed according to the baseline rate.The results showed that the lower the baseline rate,the better the effect of the intervention.The analysis indicated that the RD for the main harm of IDD,the RD for the key measure to prevent IDD,the RD for the meaning of the pattern on the bags,and the RD for knowledge dissemination of IDD were increased by 35％,29％,27％,42％ and 47％,respectively.Conclusion Health education is helpful to Chinese pupils and housewives in improving their IDD related knowledge and their attitudes toward IDD.