Egypt Iodine Survey 2014/2015
National Survey of Household Iodised Salt Use and Iodine Status among Primary School Children and Pregnant Women in Egypt 2014/2015
Highlights
Iodine deficiency is the single greatest cause of preventable mental impairment globally. Iodising all salt for human consumption, known as Universal Salt Iodisation (USI), can prevent iodine deficiency effectively and inexpensively.
This national iodine survey aimed to identify the urinary iodine concentration among a nationally representative sample of 3600 primary school children and 1500 pregnant women in Egypt and to determine household consumption of adequately iodised salt.
Results: The overall median urinary iodine of the school children was (170 µg/L) denoting optimum iodine nutrition status; only 21.7% of them had a urinary iodine level below the threshold of 100 µg/L.
The overall median urinary iodine of the pregnant women was (135 µg/L) denoting mild iodine deficiency status, where the overall median urinary iodine concentration threshold was 150 µg/L, and in all strata, the median was either below the threshold or just above it.
The adjusted percentage of adequate (≥15 ppm) household salt iodine levels among primary school children was (74.7%). In about one quarter of the salt samples, iodine levels were below the threshold of 15ppm.
The adjusted percentage of adequate (≥15 ppm) household salt iodine levels among pregnant women was (70.5%). About one third (29.5%) of household salt samples provided by pregnant women had an unsatisfactory salt iodine level (below 15 ppm).
