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Screening for Iodine Deficiency

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Handbook of Famine, Starvation, and Nutrient Deprivation

Abstract

Iodine is an essential micronutrient for normal growth and development and essential component of the thyroid hormones synthesized in the thyroid gland. Iodine deficiency (ID) is one of the most common nutritional disorders. The global efforts to control ID have been very successful, largely because of universal salt iodization (USI) programs and the number of countries where ID is a public health problem has decreased over the last two decades. Initial assessment and regular monitoring of the iodine status of a population is crucial to develop optimum public health policies and to monitor the outcomes of ID control programs. For this purpose, it has been recommended that the iodine status of a population should be assessed every 3–5 years in surveys that use valid and well-described methods. Generally, four major methods are recommended for the assessment of a population’s iodine status: urinary iodine concentration (UIC), total goiter rate (TGR) (assessed by palpation or ultrasound), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels in neonates, and serum or dried blood spot (DBS) thyroglobulin (Tg). Currently, the median UIC in spot urine specimens from a representative sample is the most common measure used to assess a population’s iodine status. In conclusion, UIC is the universal, well-validated, readily applicable, cost-effective indicator of population iodine status.

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Abbreviations

CH:

Congenital hypothyroidism

DBS:

Dried blood spot

EFSA:

European Food Safety Authority

ICCIDD:

International Council for Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders

ID:

Iodine deficiency

IDD:

Iodine deficiency disorders

SAC:

School-age children

T3:

Tri-iodothyronine

T4:

Thyroxine

Tg:

Thyroglobulin

TGR:

Total goiter rate

TSH:

Thyroid-stimulating hormone

USI:

Universal salt iodization

UIC:

Urinary iodine concentration

UNICEF:

United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund

WHO:

World Health Organization

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Child and Adolescent Health Department, Public Health Institution, Ministry of Health of Turkey, Sıhhiye, Çankaya, Ankara, Turkey

    Nilgün Çaylan

  2. Social Pediatrics Division of Pediatrics Department, Karabük University Faculty of Medicine, Karabük, Turkey

    Gonca Yılmaz

Authors
  1. Nilgün Çaylan
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  2. Gonca Yılmaz
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Correspondence to Nilgün Çaylan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Diabetes and Nutritional Sciences Research Division, Faculty of Life Science and Medicine, King’s College London, London, UK

    Victor R. Preedy

  2. School of Life Sciences, University of Westminster, London, UK

    Vinood B. Patel

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Çaylan, N., Yılmaz, G. (2019). Screening for Iodine Deficiency. In: Preedy, V., Patel, V. (eds) Handbook of Famine, Starvation, and Nutrient Deprivation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55387-0_46

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55387-0_46

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