Background: Pakistan has grappled with the challenge of Iodine Deficiency Disorders (IDD) however the country has made definite strides towards addressing it. IDD is easily prevented through consumption of adequately iodized salt. This article documents Pakistan's journey on the road to achieving universal salt iodization. Methods: Non-systematic review of Nutrition International's (NI) internal documents, case studies and other articles was used to assimilate findings. Additionally, Situation Analysis of the Salt Sector was also undertaken. Results: There are 1,350 salt processors producing 1.12 million tonnes of salt, of which 54% is for edible purposes and 46% for industrial purposes. Small, medium and large salt processors are categorized based on the production capacities. NNS, 2018 reported a higher household coverage of iodized salt (79.6%), while urinary iodine excretion showed that 7.3% of 6-12 year children were severely deficient in iodine. Conclusion: As Pakistan moves ahead in its journey towards achieving USI, it is important to understand that the focus on the program will gradually shift to sustaining USI. Hence, keeping in mind all the constraints, we need to prepare ourselves for the next stage of achieving and sustaining USI.
Background: Anaemia is one of the most common public health challenges. The objective of this paper was to estimate the prevalence of anaemia among non-pregnant and non-lactating women (NPNLW) (15-49 years) from low-income families and to assess the associations between socio-demographic and economic factors, and the prevalence of anaemia.Methods: Primary data of non-pregnant and non-lactating women of reproductive age (15 to 49 years) from low-income families collected from two selected districts of Madhya Pradesh state, India were used. Inferential statistical tools like; multiple binary logistic regressions and random forest analysis were adopted to assess the socio-demographic and economic factors associated with anaemia.Results: The results revealed that prevalence of anaemia in both the districts are quite high at 60.8% (95% CI: 58.6%, 62.9%) in Vidisha to 63.7% (95% CI: 61.6%, 65.7%) in Raisen with mean haemoglobin levels of 11.27±1.92 g/dl in Vidisha to 11.24±1.70 g/dl in Raisen, which is close to <12 g/dl cut-off based on WHO categorization. It was also found that those who are from the scheduled caste and other castes were less likely to be anaemic compared to those who were from scheduled tribes in Vidisha district. Majority of women not consuming iron supplements were found to be anaemic.Conclusions: Education was observed to be the most predominant factor inversely associated with anaemia. Age and the type of household were also found to be associated factors. Along with supplementation and nutrition education, fortification of foods is also recommended in addressing the anaemia burden.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.