Risk factors for goiter in primary school girls in Qom city of Iran

Abstract

Objective: Goiter is endemic in Iran. The iodine deficiency disorders program was begun a few years ago in Iran, and the coverage of iodized salt is sufficient now. But, in a periodic yearly medical examination of primary school girls in Qom, the prevalence of goiter was above 30% in 2002. This survey was designed to study the risk factors of goiter in those students. Design: The study was a randomized (multistage, proportional simple random sampling) case-control study. Subjects and interventions: We selected and performed thyroid examinations in 1050 girl students in primary schools in Qom city of Iran in 2002. We found 284 cases: girls in primary schools had goiter in accordance with the clinical exam of World Health Organization classification. Among students who did not present with goiter in the clinical exam, we randomly selected 288 students as the control group. We used a questionnaire to evaluate them for the risk factors of goiter. Results: The mean7s.d. ages of cases and controls were 8.771.3 and 8.971.3 years, respectively. There is no significant difference between the two groups regarding history of soya, kale, turnip, fish, daily iodized salt usage, education and job of mothers, monthly family income, nationality, immigration and residential situation. By using multinomial logistic regression, we found that storage of iodized salt in open containers, odds ratio (OR): 2.201 (1.412-3.428); P-value o0.0001, medium socioeconomic situation (SES) of family, OR: 2.099 (1.029-4.282), P-value ¼ 0.041, district 2 of Qom city, OR: 2.880 (1.376-6.027), P-value ¼ 0.005, and district 3 of Qom city, OR: 2.051(1.032-4.078), P-value ¼ 0.041, were the major risk factors for goiter in this population. Conclusions: In this study, the main risk factors for goiter were storage of iodized salt in open containers, medium SES and also living in specific districts of Qom city. As the coverage of iodinized salt is over 95% in Iran, we advise the education of the family about storage of iodized salt in closed containers. We also recommend the study of the other risk factors of goiter in the different geographical areas of Iran, because of differences in the SES and nutritional habits.

Iodine deficiency and associated factors among school children: a cross-sectional study in Ethiopia

“…This report is in line with previous findings elsewhere [6, 17, 23, 24, 26, 35, 36, 41, 42]. This might be due to a higher iodine requirement of females to support their growth and development [35].…”

Association of Socioeconomic Status with Iodine Supply and Thyroid Disorders in Northeast Germany

“…For example, as early as 1952, France introduced an iodine fortification program on a voluntary basis, but most French people are still living in a mildly to moderately iodine-deficient environment, and a nationwide study of adults demonstrated that higher education was related to a higher iodine intake (36). Similar findings were reported from South Africa (37) and Iran (38), where higher socioeconomic status was associated with more frequent use of iodized salt, higher urinary iodine excretion levels, and lower goiter risk. Likewise, a study from Madrid, Spain, demonstrated that children of less educated mothers had a lower iodine intake than children of better educated mothers (39).…”

Iodine nutritional status and risk factors for goitre among schoolchildren in South Tajikistan

“…Storing the salt in a container with lid was significantly associated with higher iodine content. Storage of salt in open containers was reported as a risk factor in a study from Iran [40]. …”