Assessing Status of Iodine Nutrition in Union Territory of Chandigarh, India

Abstract

ABSTRACT Iodine deficiency disorders (IDDs) constitute a major public health problem in India. Goiter occurring in a large fraction of population (> 10%) is said to be due to iodine deficiency rather than any other cause. A community-based cross-sectional study was undertaken in the Union Territory of Chandigarh with the aim to track the elimination of IDD to determine the iodine status of school children unexamined for goiter status and excretion median urinary iodine concentration. Goiter was assessed by standard palpation technique in 6,517 school children, aged 6 to 12 years, selected through 30 cluster sampling methods. Spot urine samples of 823 children were collected for estimation of urinary iodine using modified method of Sandell and Kolthoff. Household salt samples of the 548 selected children from schools were analyzed for its iodine content by standard iodometric titration method. The overall prevalence of goiter was found to be 14.2% among the children examined. The median urinary iodine excretion (UIE) was 199 g/L. About 71.2% of the salt samples were adequately iodized, having iodine content of > 15 ppm. Since UIE reflects recent iodine nutrition at the time of measurement and thyroid size shows iodine nutrition over months or years, it can be said that this region is in transition phase from iodine-deficient to iodine-sufficient territory. How to cite this article Agarwal N, Kaur J, Kaur J, Gupta S, Jaswal S, Kaur H, Swami HM. Assessing Status of Iodine Nutrition in Union Territory of Chandigarh, India. Indian J Med Biochem 2016;20(1):38-41.