Prevalence of Iodine Deficiency Disorders (IDD) among School Going Children in Rural Areas of Bangalore

Spectrum of IDD includes simple goitre to debilitating problems like mental retardation, psychomotor defect and still birth. School-age children of 6 to 12 years are considered as an important target group for surveillance of IDD because they are highly vulnerable, easy to access, and also their applicability in a variety of surveillance activities. The objective of the study was to estimate prevalence of goitre among school children of rural areas of Bangalore urban district and to estimate the urine iodine excretion and the salt iodine content in a sub sample. A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted among school going children of rural areas of Bangalore Urban district. Cluster sampling method was used to select in 30 villages. A sample of 90 children was selected from each village. All 2703 children were examined for goiter, 540 salt samples and 270 urine samples were collected for iodine estimation. Goitre prevalence in the study population was 33%. Maximum prevalence of goitre was observed in ≥10 years age group followed by 8-9 years and 6-7 years age group and equally distributed among boys and girls. The Median Urine Iodine (MUI) levels detected were 12.5 mg/l and median salt iodine detected was 27.5 ppm. The total goitre rate is above 5% in the children surveyed between 6-12 years age group indicating the district is endemic for goitre. The goitre grade 1+2 prevalence is ≥30% indicating a severe public health problem with current adequate nutritional iodine intake.