Pregnant women at risk for iodine deficiency but adequate iodine intake in school-aged children of Zhejiang Province, China

Abstract

The median urinary iodine concentration (UIC) of school-aged children has been commonly used as a surrogate to assess iodine status of a population including pregnant women. However, pregnant women have higher iodine requirements than children due to increased production of thyroid hormones. The aim of the study was to evaluate the iodine status of pregnant women and children as well as their household salt iodine concentration (SIC) in Quzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. Eligible pregnant women and children from all six counties of Quzhou in 2021 were recruited into the study. They were asked to complete a socio-demographic questionnaire and provide both a spot urine and a household table salt sample for the determination of UIC and SIC. A total of 629 pregnant women (mean age and gestation weeks of 29.6 years and 21.6 weeks, respectively) and 1273 school-aged children (mean age of 9 years and 49.8% of them were females) were included in the study. The overall median UIC of pregnant women and children in our sample was 127 (82, 193) μg/L and 222 (147, 327) μg/L, respectively, indicating sufficient iodine status in children but a risk of mild-to-moderate iodine deficiency in pregnant women. Distribution of iodine nutrition in children varied significantly according to their sex and age (P < 0.05). The rate of adequately household iodised salt samples (18–33 mg/kg) provided by pregnant women and children was 92.4% and 90.6%, respectively. In conclusion, our results indicated a risk of insufficient iodine status in pregnant population of China, but iodine sufficiency in school-aged children. Our data also suggested that median UIC of children may not be used as a surrogate to assess iodine status in pregnant women.