Nutrition and Goiter Status of Primary School Children in Ibadan, Nigeria

Iodine Deficiency Disorders (IDD) has continued to be of significant health problem in some communities despite universal salt iodization (USI). There is therefore a need to investigate several other factors beside iodine intake that could likely contribute to the continued prevalence of iodine deficiency in these communities. This study was therefore designed to assess the iodine deficiency status of primary school children in four schools in Ibadan, and also to answer if there is a relationship between both gender and protein energy malnutrition (PEM) with iodine deficiency. Goiter status of the subjects was determined using the WHO techniques and classifications. Heights and weights were measured using standard techniques and anthropometric indices of weight-for-age, height-for-age and weight-for-height were used to classify the children into various category of nutritional status. Four hundred and seventy one (471) school children comprising of 246(52.2%) males and 225(47.7%) females were assessed. The mean age (SD) was 10.9 (1.05) yrs, mean height (SD) was 1.36 (0.08) m and mean weight (SD) was 28.7(5.3) kg. It was observed that 42.2% of the school children had palpable goiter, 21.2% were stunted, 15.1% were underweight and 3.7% were wasted. There was no significant gender difference observed for goiter, stunting, wasting and underweight. It was observed that, only goiter and stunting were significantly associated (p <0.05). Apart from goiter and stunting being chronic or long-standing, this relationship remains unclear. Since more than 40% of these children had some degree of goiter and more than 21% were stunted, iodine deficiency and malnutrition among school children in Ibadan remain public health problems.