Survey on iodine nutrition of pregnant women in Guangdong province in 2002

Objective To evaluate the iodine nutritional status of pregnant women in Guangdong Province under the current level of iodine in salt of 35±15 mg/kg.Methods “spot checking was used for this survey. Shenzhen city, Fogang town and Lechang town were chosen as the mild, moderate and severe iodine deficiency area respectively, and from the urban and rural area of these three cities pragnent women were selected randomly, then the levels of salt iodine,urine iodine of pregnant women were measured.Results In Shenzhen city, Fogang town and Lechang town, the medians of urine iodine of pregnant women were 223.4μg/L, 125.6 μg/L and 180.9 μg/L respectively while the medians of salt iodine were 32.8mg/kg, 28.6 mg/kg and 34.9 mg/kg.Conclusions It showed that under the current level of salt iodine the iodine need for pregnant women can be met, but in the mild iodine deficiency area the iodine nutritional level of pregnant women was higher. So we suggest that the surveillance on iodine nutrition in pregnant women should be strengthened in order to protect their health.