Iodine deficiency in school going children of Pondicherry.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the status of iodine deficiency in Pondicherry by finding out the urinary excretion of iodine and the prevalence of goiter among school children.


METHODS
315 children between the age group of 9-13 yr from 30 schools in Pondicherry were examined for the presence of goiter and their urine samples were subjected to biochemical analysis to find out the urinary iodine levels (UIE).


RESULTS
The percentage of children who had inadequate iodine intake and showed urinary iodine level of less than 100 mcg/ L was 44.4%. Amongst them, 14.3% had a greater degree of iodine deficiency with less than 50 mcg/L of iodine in urine. The prevalence of goiter was 15.24%.


CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of goiter is high. The iodine intake is quite low as exhibited by the UIE levels of < 100mcg/L in the children in Pondicherry, which might have had an unseen impact on the intelligence and school performance of these children.
Sarkar
Sonali
S
Department of Community Medicine and Biochemistry, Mahatma Gandhi Medical College & Research Institute Pillaiyarkuppam, Pondicherry, India. sarkarsonaligh@gmail.com
Mohanty
Biswajit
B
Basu
Sharbari
S
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006042:Goiter / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D007455:Iodine / Q000172:deficiency* / Q000652:urine; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence