Biochemical iodine deficiency in selected schools of aligarh

Abstract

The goiter prevalence reflects the iodine deficiency in past while urinary iodine excretion levels (UIEL) gives the current status of iodine nutrition. The study was conducted to assess the status of biochemical iodine deficiency in school children of 1st-5th standard (6-12 years). A total of 907 students of seven schools were included using probability proportional to size method. About 10% of urine samples from total children were tested for UIEL. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS version 20 (IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 20.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp). UIEL values lower than 100 μg/L were observed in 23.3% of samples. The proportion of children with UIEL of <20 μg/L was nil in 6 years. Out of 13 students who were consuming salt with nil iodine content, 46.2% had <20 μg/L UIEL. The prevalence of iodine deficiency, calculated by the proportion of children having UIEL of <100 μg/L, was 23.3%. Based on UIEL values, the area would be categorized as having "no biochemical iodine deficiency."