Prevalence of iodine deficiency and urinary iodine excretion among school-going children in a Southern District of Karnataka – A cross-sectional study

Background: Iodine deficiency is a major public health problem, which leads to impaired neurodevelopment, particularly in early life and is the single most preventable cause of mental retardation and brain damage in children and fortunately, it is preventable. Aims: To estimate the prevalence of goitre among school children in Kodagu District and to estimate the urine iodine excretion and salt iodine content in a subsample. Patients and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among school children of 6-12 years in the Kodagu district. Sampling was done by population proportionate to size cluster sampling method with 2700 study participants, 540 salt samples and 270 urine samples. Results: Out of 2700 study participants, the prevalence of goitre was 15.50%. Students of Madikeri Taluk, rural area students, 11-year-old students, Consumption of Goitrogens among students show significant association with goitre after multivariate logistic regression analysis. Urinary iodine excretion test shows 0.36%, 1.80% and 12.99% of the participants had severe, moderate and mild iodine deficiency, respectively. Conclusion: The prevalence of goitre was high indicating that it is an endemic area. Activities such as periodic surveys, provision of iodised salt and intensified monitoring and further evaluation of the IDD programme is obligatory to reduce the goitre rate.