Iodine deficiency disorders in 15 districts of India.
METHODS
A multicentre study to assess iodine deficiency disorders (goitre and deaf-mutism/cretinism) in 1, 45, 264 children (6 - <12 years old) from 15 districts of ten states was carried out during 1997-2000. Urinary iodine excretion was also determined in 27481 children, while iodine content was estimated in 5881 samples of edible salt. The sampling methodology followed was a "30 cluster survey".


RESULTS
The overall prevalence of goitre was 4.78% (4.66% of grade I and 0.12% of grade II) amongst the children examined. The highest prevalence of 31.02% goitre was observed in Dehradun district, while the lowest prevalence of 0.02% goitre was recorded in Bishnupur and Badaun districts. The overall prevalence of cretinism among children examined from seven districts was 0.072% whereas that of deaf-mutism was 0.27% among children examined from 8 districts. Median urinary iodine values was marginally less than the WHO cut-off values only in children of the 3 out of the 15 districts surveyed. Iodine content was found to be adequate in 55.45% of the salt samples.


CONCLUSIONS
The results suggested a significant decline in the prevalence of goitre in most parts of the country.
Toteja
G S
GS
Central Co-ordinating Unit, Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi, India. gstoteja@yahoo.com
Singh
Padam
P
Dhillon
B S
BS
Saxena
B N
BN
D000293:Adolescent; D017677:Age Distribution; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003409:Congenital Hypothyroidism / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003906:Developing Countries; D005260:Female; D006043:Goiter, Endemic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D007455:Iodine / Q000172:deficiency*; D008297:Male; D012424:Rural Population; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D017678:Sex Distribution
D007455:Iodine