Effectiveness of the program "School Milk" for the prevention of iodine deficiency

Republic of Bashkortostan refers to iodine-deficient regions of Russia. The incidence of endemic multinodular goiter in 2012 in the Republic amounted to 33.2 per 100 thousand of the population. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of group iodine prophylaxis of schoolchildren through the use of iodized milk. The study included 181 children of primary school (pre-pubertal) age (8-10 years), it has been carried out in accordance with the recommendations of the WHO and the International Council for Control of iodine deficiency disorders using a unified system of identification of iodine deficiency states. Level of physical development was assessed according to anthropometric measurements, which were conducted by centile distribution tables according to age and sex, and the individual assessment of physical development was determined by the level of feature by its position in a number of centile. Assessment of iodine deficiency was carried out by determining levels of iodine excretion in a single urine sample. Iodine concentration in urine was determined by ceric ion-arsenious acid method. Frequency of iodine deficiency varying degrees before the iodine prophylaxis among urban children was 57.0%, among rural-92.3%. Urban junior schoolchildren showed severe iodine deficiency in 12.7% and moderate one in 16.4% of the cases, while in the countryside their prevalence was higher--27.4 and 35.2%, respectively. It was revealed that the number of children whose body growth values are within the average values is 36% in urban children, and 48.4% in rural areas. It should be noted that the low and very low body height predominate in rural students, it makes up 16.1% (while in the town it makes-up 2.3%). Iodine prophylaxis contributed to a significant reduction of iodine deficiency in children. In the town the median urinary iodine exceeded 100 mg/L and amounted to 159.4 mg/L. After iodine prophylaxis 82.5% of urban children and 72.1% of rural showed normal urinary iodine. When comparing the results of clinical and laboratory studies before and after the group prevention of iodine deficiency there has been revealed a positive trend in terms of reflecting the tensions of thyroid status.