Cognition, behavior and demand of iodine nutrition in residents of North China Region from 2019 to 2020

Abstract

To evaluate residents in North China cognition level of iodine nutrition and their intention to evaluate individual iodine status. From February 2019 to June 2020, randomly selected six provinces and cities in north China and more than three cities or areas, then randomly selected local investigators and distributed questionnaires to urban and rural residents. The questionnaire was divided into three parts: basic information, iodine nutrition knowledge, iodine status evaluation demand and approaches. Finally, there are 740 questionnaires were included. The scores of iodine knowledge of the subjects were generally low, about 71.22% of the subjects with less than 6 points(full score of 12 points). Residents who did not know how to choose the type of salt accounted for 25.14%. Provinces and cities with low utilization rate of iodized salt(Tianjin, Shandong) had higher requirements for salt use guidance and iodine status evaluation. The awareness rate of the subjects to the harm of iodine deficiency was low(34.46%), especially the hazard to pregnant women and infants(7.57%, 4.59%). Subjects had a high demand for using wechat mini-program or kit to evaluate individual iodine nutrition(87.45%, 89.39%). At present, residents in North China have a low cognitive level of iodine nutrition, which lead to them the doubts when choosing salt types. The selection of iodized salt can be effectively guided by propagating iodine nutrition knowledge and promoting accurate iodine nutrition evaluation.