PJB-2017-850
Impact of a school-based intervention to address iodine deficiency disorder in adolescent girls in Gilgit, Pakistan
Nadir shah
Abstract
Iodine deficiency disorder (IDD) is a major public health problem in the high mountain population of Gilgit Baltistan province of Pakistan. In this study we evaluated the impact of iodine supplementation coupled with iodine nutrition education on IDD in adolescent girls. We conducted a pre- and post intervention study in a stratified random sample of 152 girls aged 10 to 19 years from four schools of Gilgit town in 2011. IDD was defined as having a goiter, and urinary iodine deficiency (<100 mcg/l). Five trained female research assistants conducted iodine nutrition education for 6 months. Out of 152 participants, 125 (83%) completed the study. The optimum salt iodine concentration (50 ppm) increased from 10.5% to 21.5% at the household level of the study participants. Consumption of iodine poor food decreased from 74.7% to 59.6% after the intervention. The mean urinary iodine concentration increased from 33.2mcg/L (SD±14.9) to 119.1 mcg/L (SD±65.8) over the study period and the change was statistically significant (p<0.05). At the end of the study 82.8% of the adolescent had no goiter compared to 72.4% at the baseline. This study showed improvement in iodized salt consumption and decreased IDD among the study adolescents.
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