Survey on iodine status of high risk population in fugang county

Objective To estimate the iodine nutrient status of high risk population in the moderate iodine deficiency areas under the present salt iodine content and to provide scientific recommendations for the adjustment of salt iodine content.Methods A town and a village were selected in the moderate iodine deficiency areas in Fugang county in Guangdong province, from which schoolchildren aged from 8~10 years, women at childbearing-age, pregnant women, breast feeding women and their newborns were randomly selected as the five different cohorts.Then salt iodine, urinary iodine, milk iodine and thyroid volume were measured.Results The median salt iodine was 27.5 mg/kg and the coverage of iodized salt was 97.9%.1 042 urine samples were collected from the five different cohorts and the medians urinary iodine were 286.7?187.6?172.6?125.6 and 237.1 μg/L respectively. There were significant difference between the urinary iodine levels of the five cohorts (P0.01), and the urinary iodine levels of schoolchildren and newborns were higher than those of the other three cohorts.The median milk iodine of the town was much higher than that of the village, the medians were 292.2 and 163.1 μg/L respectively (P0.01). There was positive correlation between the milk iodine and the urinary iodine in the breast feeding women and their newborns.Conclusions The iodine requirement of the high risk population can be met under the present iodine salt content in the moderate iodine deficiency areas in Fugang county. But there was a tendency of higher iodine status in schoolchildren and newborns. We suggested that maybe it is more reasonable to adjust the present salt iodine content from (35±15)mg/kg to (30±10)mg/kg.