PREVALENCE OF GOITER AND IODINE NUTRITIONAL STATUS IN SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN OF DISTRICT KARAK, KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA, PAKISTAN

Context. Pakistan is considered severely iodine deficient on the basis of available data. However this data is collected in patches with severe iodine deficiency. Objectives. The current study was conducted to know the prevalence of goiter and iodine nutrition status in the district Karak. Design. Thirty clusters approach was adopted for the study. Subjects and Methods. From each cluster, 40 school age children (20 boys and 20 girls) of age 6-12 years were randomly selected. A total of 1194 children (boys= 600 and girls= 594) were recruited for the study. Goiter was measured using palpation, urinary iodine by wet digestion and salt iodine content was measured using rapid spot testing kit. Results. Our results show the total goiter rate to be 14.2% (n=169) in the district. The goiter in girls was 15.8% (n=94) whereas in boys the prevalence was 12.5% (n=75). The median urinary concentration in girls was 65.6 +/- 63.68 mu g/L (IQR= 42.2-83.85) whereas in boys it was 56.8 +/- 40.98 mu g/L (IQR= 36.5-85.8). Median urinary iodine concentration was 62.3 +/- 53.28 mu g/L (IQR= 39.9-85.0) in the district. Iodine level >= 15 ppm was found only in 27.5% household salt samples and 72.3% salt samples had <15 ppm iodine.. Conclusions. Our results show that district Karak is mildly iodine deficient with moderate prevalence of goiter. Immediate prophylactic measures should be taken for compulsory use of iodized salt.