Prevalence of goiter and its associated factors among primary school children in Chole District, Arsi Zone, Ethiopia: a cross- sectional study

Abstract

Background: Goiter remains one of the major public health problems particularly among young children in economically disadvantaged countries like Ethiopia. The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of goiter and its associated factors among children aged 6-12 years in Chole district, Arsi Zone, Eastern Ethiopia. Methods: A school based cross-sectional study was conducted in February, 2017 among 422 primary school children in Chole district, eastern Ethiopia. The schools and study subjects were randomly selected. A structured, pretested and interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect the required data. It was conducted after getting due consents from the school administration and assent from caregiver/parent. Spot testing kits were used to estimate the level of iodine in salts. Descriptive statistics, cross-tabulations for chi-square test, and bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to show the magnitude of goiter and its associated factors. Odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were computed to determine the presence and strengths of associations. Results: From the 422 study participants, 407 (96.4%) completed the questionnaire. Of these 205(50.3%) were female. The mean age of participant school children was 9.87(SD ± 1.6) years. The prevalence of goiter among study subjects was 36.6% (95% CI, 31.6-40.8%). History of goiter in the family (AOR = 6.80; 95% CI: 3.34-13.84), cabbage consumption (AOR = 2.52; 95% CI: 1.38-4.60) and living with family in a single room (AOR = 2.30; 95% CI: 1.13-4.67) were positively associated with the development of goiter among primary school children in Chole district, eastern Ethiopia. But consuming milk (AOR =0.37; 95% CI: 0.23-0.59) was found to be negatively associated or protective against the development of goiter among the study subjects. Conclusions: Iodine deficiency was found to be significant public health problem in the study area. Consuming milk was found to be protective, whereas consuming goitrogenic foods like cabbage were found to be the risk factors for the development of goiter among school-aged children. Thus, ensuring the consumption of iodized salt and promoting iodine rich food items among the community in Chole district and other similar settings in Ethiopia are strongly recommended.

Prevalence of goiter and its determinants among children in Southern Ethiopia: An implication for designing family-centered prevention strategy

“…The odds of developing goiter among students who had a family history of goiter were 3-fold higher than those with no family history of goiter. This finding is similar to studies [20][21][22]. Thus, children with family history of goiter imply genetic or hereditary factors may play a great role for causation of goiter [23,24].…”

Iodine nutritional status, the prevalence of thyroid goiter and nodules in rural and urban residents: a cross-sectional study from Guangzhou, China

“…In 1999, the prevalence of thyroid goiter was 12.45% in the Guangdong coastal area ( 9 ), which was much higher than our present results. The prevalence in our study was also lower than that in India (13.98%) ( 22 ), Pakistan (25.5%) ( 23 ), and Ethiopia (36.6%) ( 24 ). The implementation of universal salt iodization programs has markedly decreased the prevalence of thyroid goiter in Guangzhou.…”

“…Another previous study also reported a correlation between low education and an increased frequency of thyroid goiter ( 23 ). In addition, repeat pregnancies can increase the occurrence of thyroid goiter ( 16 , 24 ). Although the total fertility rate of females was higher in rural areas than urban areas, we did not investigate and compare these factors in our study.…”

Excessive intake of iodine and low prevalence of goiter in school age children five years after implementation of national salt iodization in Shebedino woreda, southern Ethiopia

“…The reduced prevalence of iodine deficiency in the study area is promising. However, iodine deficiency was still a public health problem in some parts of the country [26][27][28]. A study conducted in the Robe district in 2015 showed that 57% of the participants had low UIC and the median UIC was 78 μg/L [29].…”