Iodine status of women in reproductive age group in urban slums of Cuttack City, Orissa.

A community based cross-sectional study involving 168 women of reproductive age was carried out in urban slums of Cuttack city in 2005 to assess the iodine status. Pre-designed, pre-tested schedule was used to collect relevant information & urine samples collected from the study subjects were analyzed by ammonium persulfate digestion method to estimate the iodine level. The median urinary iodine concentration of the study subjects was 64.5 microg/L, 62.5% of study population had iodine deficiency i.e. < 100 microg/L & among them, 74.3% had moderate to severe iodine deficiency i.e. <50 microg/L. Iodine deficiency was significantly higher among women of Muslim religion & Hindu Scheduled Caste & those coming from joint families.