Goiter prevalence and iodine nutritional status of school children in a sub-Himalayan Tarai region of eastern Uttar Pradesh.

OBJECTIVES: The present work was undertaken to evaluate the prevalence of goiter, state of iodine nutrition of the population, distribution of iodine through edible salt, bioavailability of iodine, consumption of common goitrogenic food that generally interfere with iodine nutrition in Naugarh sub-division of Siddharthnagar district in Uttar Pradesh, India. SETTING: Five areas were selected from 5 Community Development (CD) Blocks taking one from each by purposive sampling method. In each area, Primary and Junior high schools were selected by simple random sampling to get representative target population. METHODS: Clinical goiter survey was conducted in 1663 school-aged children from both sexes (6-12 yrs), along with the biochemical analysis of iodine (I) and thiocyanate (SCN) in 200 urine samples, iodine content in 175 edible salt samples and 20 water samples collected from the selected study areas. RESULTS: The studied region is severely affected by Iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) as goiter prevalence is 30.2% (grade 1: 27.1% grade 2:3.1%).Median urinary iodine level was 96 microg/L indicating biochemical iodine deficiency. The mean urinary thiocyanate was 0.810+/-0.490 mg/dL and mean of I/SCN ratios in all the studied areas were above the critical level of 7. However, 22% of the individual had I/SCN ratio <or=7 indicating their susceptibility for the development of goiter. Only 12.6% of the salt samples had adequate iodine i.e., >or=15 ppm while iodine content in drinking water varied between 7.5-10.7 microg/L.CONCLUSION: Iodine deficiency is the primary cause, however the consumption of cyanogenic food may have important role for the persistence of IDD in the studied region during post salt iodization phase.