©ARC Page | 17 A Study on the Effect of Iodine Content of Salt Samples on the Iodine Nutrition Status of Pregnant, Lactating and Healthy Non-Pregnant, Non-Lactating (NPNL) Women

Abstract: The present hospital based study was carried on 511 pregnant, 208 lactating and 120 healthy non-pregnant, non-lactating (NPNL) women belonging to age group 20-45 years with low socio-economic background. The pregnant and the lactating women were taken from the antenatal clinic and the NPNL women were taken from other outpatient departments of the same hospital. The aim of the study was to evaluate the relation between their Iodine Nutrition Status (INS) and iodine content of the cooking salt. Urinary Iodine Excretion (UIE) was used as the biomarker of the INS as it is the best indicator of recent iodine intake and Iodometric Titration was used to measure the iodine content of the salt samples. The result suggested that 34 % (175) pregnant women, 22 % (45) lactating women and 6 % (7) NPNL women had insufficient iodine intake as reflected by their Urinary Iodine Excretion (UIE). Even though 70 % of these iodine inadequate subjects admitted use of branded salt samples for cooking it was found that 51 % (53) pregnant women, 38 %(17) lactating women and 2 (out of 7) NPNL women consumed salt with <15ppm iodine content. It was also observed that 51-71 % of the iodine deficient subjects added salt to their food during the initial stages of cooking. Hence inadequate INS of the studied population could be attributed to inadequately iodised salt along with faulty transportation, storage and cooking practices as recorded