Assessing the trend of iodine deficiency among antenatal patients of the university of Port Harcourt teaching hospital

Background: Iodine deficiency is a global health problem of public health significance; it is the leading cause of preventable neurodevelopmental impairment in children globally. This deficiency can occur in pregnancy leading to various degree of morbidity.
Aims and objective: This study was aimed at determining the pattern and severity of iodine deficiency amongst pregnant women in the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital.
Methodology: This study was a hospital-based cross-sectional comparative study that measured the urinary iodine concentration in two subgroups of the population; pregnant women and non- pregnant women of reproductive age. Structured questionnaires were administered to and urine samples were obtained from the participants. The urinary iodine concentration was measured using the Sandell-Kolthoff reaction. The data from the structured questionnaire was entered into a spreadsheet and analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences 25.0 software package (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA).
Results: The mean age for the pregnant study group was 32.15±5.2, the median and modal age was 31 years, with a range of 23 to 43 years.
Mild iodine deficiency was seen in 57.1% of the non-pregnant respondents and 34.4% of the pregnant respondents. Moderate iodine deficiency was seen in 42.9% of non-pregnant respondents and 56.2% of pregnant respondents. Severe Iodine deficiency was observed only among the pregnant respondents (9.4%)
The median urinary iodine concentration (Median UIC) among pregnant women was 42.87ug/l, while the median UIC among non-pregnant women was 52.33ug/l. A Mann-Whitney U test indicated that this difference was statistically significant, U (NPregnant=66, Nnon-pregnant =63) =1234.5, z= -3.98, p≤ 0.001).
Conclusion: This study found that iodine deficiency was prevalent among women in the study population (pregnant and non-pregnant women), however, it was more severe in pregnant women. Based on the results of our study there is an urgent need for iodine supplementation in our pregnant women.