Status of iodine nutriture and universal salt iodisation at beneficiaries levels in Kerala State, India.

Iodine deficiency disorders are an important public health problem in India. It is wrongly believed that populations residing in coastal areas do not suffer from iodine deficiency as they consume sea foods which are rich in iodine. A high prevalence of iodine deficiency has been reported in 11 districts of Kerala ranging between 9.3 and 44.5%. In spite of the high prevalence of iodine deficiency, the state government of Kerala has not banned the sale of non-iodised salt in the state. Thus, the present study was conducted to assess the current status of iodine nutriture and level of salt iodisation in Kerala state. The study was conducted in all the 14 districts in the state by utilising the uniform sampling methodology. A total of 2110 salt samples were collected randomly from children. On the spot casual urine samples were collected from 689 children. The results revealed that overall 43.8% of the families in the state were consuming salt with 15ppm and more of iodine. It was found that three districts namely Kasargod, Idukki and Kottayam had median urinary iodine excretion level < 100.0 microg/l and also more than 20% of the samples had urinary iodine excretion levels less than 50 microg/l. The findings of the present study revealed continued iodine deficiency amongst the three districts identified as endemic earlier. This indicates the need of immediate ban on the sale of non-iodised salt for the edible purposes and intensive information, education and communication activities for promotion of consumption of iodised salt.