The Iodine Status of First Trimester Pregnant Women and its Association with Household Coverage with Adequately Iodized Salt in Sarawak

Objective: This study aimed to determine the current status of IDD among first trimester pregnant women in Sarawak after 3 years of previous IDD survey in 2015 Methods: This is a cross sectional study of IDD conducted between July and September 2018 involving all divisions in Sarawak. A total of 30 Maternal and Child Health Clinics were selected using proportionate to population size (PPS) method and 677 pregnant women in the selected clinics were randomly selected via systematic sampling. Urinary iodine was measured using in-house microplate method. Respondents with urinary iodine concentration (UIC) of<150, 150-249, 250-499, and ≥500 g/L were considered to have insufficient,adequate, more than adequate, or excessive iodine levels, respectively (WHO/UNICEF/ICCIDD, 2007). Chi-squaretest was use to compare the UIC values of respondents from all divisions Results: The prevalence of goitre rate (TGR) was found to be 1.0% (n=10). The median urinary iodineconcentration (UIC) level for whole Sarawak was 123.9μg/L (IQR 56.5-192.1μg/L) which indicating iodinedeficiency. Median UIC for Sri Aman and Mukah had achieved adequacy of iodine intake which were 150.7 (IQR128.2-235.8) and 170.2 (IQR 119.1-264.7) respectively compare to others were range between 75.4 μg/L to 145.4μg/L
Conclusion: Majority of the pregnant women in Sarawak still have insufficient UIC (<150μg/L). However, medianUIC in 2018 (123.9μg/L) improved 12.2% compared with study in 2015 (105.6μg/L). Therefore, this study showsimportant of USI and regular monitoring of the UIC level in the communities to eradicate IDD in the Sarawak

Author(s): Abdul Aziz Harith

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