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Epidemiology of Iodine Deficiency

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Iodine Deficiency Disorders and Their Elimination

Abstract

Global efforts to control iodine deficiency through the highly successful strategy of salt iodization have been in effect for over two decades. In 2016, urinary iodine concentration (UIC) data in school-age children are available for 127 countries: 15 countries are classified as iodine deficient, 102 have optimal iodine nutrition, and 10 have excess iodine intakes. This reflects tremendous global progress against iodine deficiency. Increasingly, countries are recognizing the importance of monitoring the iodine status in populations that are particularly vulnerable to the negative consequences of iodine deficiency, such as pregnant women. For the first time, global UIC data in pregnant women have been compiled and presented, based on surveys from 65 countries. The iodine intake in pregnant women is insufficient in 37 countries, and the main challenge is to further strengthen the delivery of salt iodization programs to ensure that iodized salt meets the iodine requirements of pregnant women.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    These include Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, China, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Japan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Yemen.

Abbreviations

EAR:

Estimated average requirement

IDD:

Iodine deficiency disorders

ICCIDD:

International Council for the Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders

IGN:

Iodine Global Network

PW:

Pregnant women

SAC:

School-age children

TGR:

Total goiter rate

UIC:

Urinary iodine concentration

WHO:

World Health Organization

WRA:

Women of reproductive age

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Acknowledgments

We thank Vincent Assey, Karen Codling, Nita Dalmiya, Gregory Gerasimov, Izzeldin Hussein, Pieter Jooste, John Lazarus, Gary Ma, Qian Ming, Chandrakant S. Pandav, Elizabeth Pearce, Eduardo A. Pretell, Ekaterina Troshina, and Michael B Zimmermann for providing recent country data on iodine status. We also thank Karen Abbott for help in compiling data on the iodine status in pregnant women.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Human Nutrition Laboratory, Institute of Food, Nutrition and Health, ETH Zurich and Iodine Global Network, Schmelzbergstrasse 7, LFV D21, CH-8092, Zurich, Switzerland

    MaƂgorzata Gizak, Jonathan Gorstein PhD & Maria Andersson PhD

Authors
  1. MaƂgorzata Gizak
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  2. Jonathan Gorstein PhD
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  3. Maria Andersson PhD
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Correspondence to MaƂgorzata Gizak .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Elizabeth N. Pearce

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Gizak, M., Gorstein, J., Andersson, M. (2017). Epidemiology of Iodine Deficiency. In: Pearce, E. (eds) Iodine Deficiency Disorders and Their Elimination. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49505-7_3

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