Salt Consumption Patterns and Iodine Nutrition Status of Pregnant Women in Coastal Region

Abstract

Background: Maternal Iodine Deficiency Disorder can result in inevitable cretinism as well as miscarriages, stillbirth and low birth-weight babies. Objective: There is a need to find out contributing factors towards urinary iodine concentrations of pregnant women. Methods: Therefore, the cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted to assess t h e patterns of salt utilization and iodine status of pregnant women living in coastal areas of Mon State in January and May, 2013. Result: A total of 144 pregnant women from Pa-Nga village and Kalokepi village in Th anbyuzayat township were asked by using structured questionnaires including age, parity, socioeconomic status and patterns of salt and iodine - rich foods (seaweed, fish, prawn) consumption. Casual urine samples were collected from each pregnant woman and urinary iodine concentrations were measured. Three samples each of the iodized salt and non-iodized salt from local markets were collected for determination of iodine content by the iodometric titration method. Only 83.3% of the study population consumed iodized salt and t h e remaining (16.7%) consumed non-iodized salt. The median urinary iodine concentration of the study population was 105 μg/L. The mean urinary iodine level of pregnant women who consumed iodized salt and that of pregnant women who consumed non-iodizes salt were 110.47 ± 67.34 μg/L and 95.83 ± 70.13 μg/L (P = 0.336). Iodine content of the iodized salt and non-iodized salt was 20.6 ± 9.2 ppm and 5.1 ± 1.2 ppm respectively. In conclusion, t h e median iodine level of pregnant women was lower than that of the optimal iodine nutrition for pregnant women, i.e. , 150 - 250 μg/L and t h e mean iodine content of salt samples was lower than the permissible level of iodine in iodized salt, i.e. , 30 - 40 ppm. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that iodine nutritional status of pregnant women in t h is area is insufficient and salt iodization needs to be monitored for the optimal iodine content in iodized salt.