Iodine nutritional status of pregnant women in urban and rural areas of Shijiazhuang City

Abstract

Objective To understand the iodine nutritional status of urban and rural pregnant women in Shijiazhuang. Methods Urban pregnant women were selected from 8 neighborhood committees of Chang'an District, Shijiazhuang, while the rural pregnant women were selected from 72 villages of 18 counties in Shijiazhuang. These research subjects were grouped into women with early pregnancy at 1-12 weeks, mid pregnancy at 13-28 weeks and third trimester at 32-40 weeks. Urine samples of the subjects were collected. Arsenic-cerium catalytic spectrophotometry (WS/T 107-2006) was used to determine urinary iodine concentrations (UIC). Results Seven hundred thirty-seven urban pregnant women and 898 cases from the rural areas, totally 1 635 subjects were included into the survey. The median UIC of urban subjects, rural cases, and all pregnant women in Shijiazhuang was 169.0, 145.9 and 156.7 μg/L, respectively. The median UIC of the rural pregnant women was significantly lower than that of their urban peers (χ2= 54.569, P 0.05). Conclusions Iodine deficiency is present in pregnant women in Shijiazhuang City. Iodine deficiency among rural pregnant is more severe than that of peers of urban. The iodine deficiency is more severe in the pregnant population at late pregnancy. Besides iodized salt, food with rich iodine should be supplemented for the pregnant, especially those at the third trimester. It is important to monitor iodine nutritional status dynamically during the pregnancy to keep a proper UIC for the pregnant. Key words: Pregnancy; Iodine; Data collection