| dc.description.abstract | Background: Pregnancy increases the iodine dietary requirements to meet the needs of the
mother and the baby. Both iodine deficiency and excessive iodine are known to cause fetal
and maternal thyroid disease. Uganda lacks data on the current iodine nutrition of pregnant
women. This study assessed the iodine nutrition of pregnant women attending antenatal care
at selected health units in Kasese district.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional study among 500 pregnant women attending antenatal
care in Kasese district. Participants were randomly selected from four randomly selected
health units. Socio-demographic, obstetric and Knowledge, Attitude and practice (KAP) data
were collected using medical forms and semi structured questionnaires. Urine iodine
concentration (UIC) was measured using the Sandell-Kolthoff method. The WHO cut offs for
UIC categorization was used to classify the UIC. The modified Poisson model was run to
determine the factors associated with the low.
Results: Among 473 pregnant women attending antenatal care at the health units, the median
UIC was 73.3mcg/dl (Interquartile range (IQR) 32.0,149.7 mcg/dl), indicating inadequate
iodine intake. 73.6 % of the pregnant women had a low UIC of < 150mcg/dl (95% CI:
62.5,82.3%). The difference in median UIC among the four health units was not statistically
significant (χ² (3) = 4.03, p = 0.26; χ² (3) with ties = 7.2, p = 0.07). Taking alcohol was
associated with a high prevalence of low UIC (aPR= 1.2 95% CI: 1.1- 1.4, p value 0.01).
Being employed was associated with higher prevalence compared to being unemployed
(aPR= 1.1 95% CI:1.0-1.1, p value 0.06).
Conclusions: The pregnant women in Kasese district had Inadequate iodine nutrition.
Government should prioritize to monitor pregnant women’s iodine nutrition | en_US |
