Urinary Iodine of Primary School Students in Nong Bua Lamphu Province

Abstract

Iodine deficiency remains a major public health problem in the world. It is estimated that a popu-lation of over a billion people especially in developing countries suffer from this problem. The situation of iodine deficiency in Thailand since 1889 led to the establishment of a surveillance system of iodine deficiency. During 2008-2009, the level of urinary iodine in children aged 1-14 years old was assessed, and in 2011-2012 the urinary iodine level in pregnant women was surveyed. In 2013 the risk situation of iodine deficiency was surveyed among several age groups. The objective of this study was to assess the level of urinary iodine in primary school students in Nongbua Lamphu province. Altogether 174 urine samples were collected during January-June 2015: 95 samples in the first collection and 79 in the second. It was found that the percentage of samples with sufficient iodine (100-199 µg/L) from the first and the second collections was 23.2 and 30.4, respectively; that with iodine deficiency (<99 µg/L) was 10.5 and 10.4 respectively; and that with excess iodine (>200 µg/L) was detected in 66.3 and 58.2 in the first and the second collections, respectively. Thus, approximately 30 percent of the students had sufficient iodine. It should be noted that excess iodine could be resulted in similar signs and symptoms as iodine deficiency such as goiter, decrease or increase thyroid hormone, thyroid disease or thyroid cancer. Therefore, more attention should be paid to consistently and continuously solve the nutritional problems related to the deficiency and the excess of iodine in children.