Abstract

Iodine supply is crucial during pregnancy to ensure that the proper thyroid function of mother and baby support fetal brain development. Little is known about iodine status or its dietary determinants in pregnant women in the Republic of Cyprus. We therefore recruited 128 pregnant women at their first-trimester ultrasound scan to a cross-sectional study. We collected spot-urine samples for the measurement of urinary iodine concentration (UIC, µg/l) and creatinine concentration (Creat, g/l), the latter of which allows us to correct for urine dilution and to compute the iodine-to-creatinine ratio (UI/Creat). Women completed a FFQ and a general questionnaire. We used a General Linear model to explore associations between maternal and dietary characteristics with UI/Creat. The median UIC (105 µg/l) indicated iodine deficiency according to the WHO criterion (threshold for adequacy = 150 µg/l), and the UI/Creat was also low at 107 µg/g. Only 32 % (n 45) of women reported the use of iodine-containing supplements; users had a higher UI/Creat than non-users (131 µg/g v. 118 µg/g), though this difference was NS in the adjusted analysis (P = 0·37). Of the dietary components, only egg intake was significantly associated with a higher UI/Creat in adjusted analyses (P = 0·018); there was no significant association with milk, dairy products or fish intake. Our results suggest that pregnant women in Cyprus have inadequate iodine status and are at risk of mild-to-moderate iodine deficiency. Further research on dietary sources in this population is required.

Highlights

  • Inadequate iodine status negatively affects thyroid hormone synthesis[1] and may impair brain development in fetal life, up until the start of the second trimester[2,3]

  • To assess population iodine status, the WHO recommends collecting spot-urine samples for the measurement of urinary iodine concentration (UIC) and comparing the median UIC to the WHO cut-off for iodine adequacy[14]

  • Iodine status in the general population in Cyprus was thought to be sufficient[17], but this classification is based on data from school-aged children from Northern Cyprus from a national survey that is more than 20 years old[17,18]

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Summary

Introduction

Inadequate iodine status negatively affects thyroid hormone synthesis[1] and may impair brain development in fetal life, up until the start of the second trimester[2,3]. Population iodine deficiency is noted if the median is

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