Assessment and effect of nutritional education on iodine nutriture status of children under five years from selected slum areas in Dhaka city

Abstract

A prospective cohort study was undertaken among 106 slums dwelling households from
Shahjahanpur and Shantibagh, situated in the City of Dhaka. Out of 125 children below five
years, 44.8% of them were females and 55.2% of them were males. Nearly half (46.2%) of the
respondent mothers were housewives and 38.7% of those women were maidservants.
Occupations of the respondents’ husbands were rickshawpullers (21.7%), drivers (26.4%;), or
unemployed (25.5%). Majority (66%) of the respondents belonged to the age group of 20-29
years and about 82.1% of them were illiterate. More than fifty percent (53.9%) of the
households’ income was below Tk. 4,000/- per month, whereas 57.6% of these households
had five members or more in their families. In addition, seventy one percent (70.7%) of the
subjects showed normal urinary iodine level (>100^g/L) but 29.3% had urinary iodine level
below the cut off point (<100/xg/L). Nutritional education sessions using a specific method
and structured questionnaire were conducted after obtaining the base line information from
the households. Which showed that the knowledge of the respondent mothers had increased
by 86.8%, the use of iodized salt had increased by 10.6%, and the use of plastic pots for the
storing salts had increased by 13.7%. As a result, median urinary level of iodine had increased
from 247.35 fig fL to 307.75 fig/L and 229.10 /xg/L to 271.10 /xg/L, respectively in boys and
girls; and median value had increased by 60.4 jUg/L and 42,0 HgfL, respectively in boys and
girls. Though median urinary iodine levels were with in the normal range in both base-line
and follow-up cases but linear trend between the base line and the follow-up urinary iodine
level showed significant improvement of the situation. From these findings it can be
concluded that nutritional education may be considered as a supportive intervention in
addition to Universal Salt lodization (USI), for reducing IDD among the under five children
of slum areas.