DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2013.v01i05.0013

Pages: 406-414

The effect of Iodine deficiency disorders includes goitre and brain damage . Goiter is prevalent worldwide and in India; it is also widely prevalent. According to the World Health Organisation, a total goiter rate of more than 5% in school children (6-12) should signal the presence of public health problem. As such no study estimating IDD prevalence at all India level is available , So,the present study was undertaken & is a Cross- Sectional Study conducted in department of Community Medicine, SKIMS Medical College, Srinagar between June 2011 to July 2012. The study was conducted to find out the magnitude of goiter in the age group of 6-12 years in district Kargil & to propose recommendations for the said problem. In the presented study 2700 subjects were screened. Two-stage cluster sampling was used to select the study sample. In the first stage, thirty clusters were selected based on probability proportionate to the size of the target population in different zones. A sample of 90 children (45 boys & 45 Girls) of age group of 6-12 years from the school and out of school/household of selected village/ward was selected. The number of children per cluster was based on the estimated prevalence of 30% with 95% confidence interval. Results showed that 30% children had G1 goiter and 1.9% children had G2 goiter. Prevalence varied with sex and age. The prevalence of G1 in boys was higher (34.9%) than girls (25.1%) & prevalence of G2 goiter was 1.8% in boys and 2% in girls. Total goiter rate calculated by summing prevalence of G1 and G2 was 36.7%, in males which is more as compared to females (27.1%). The results of the present study have indicated that iodine deficiency continues to be a health problem..So, monitoring of iodine content of salt for at distributor level & at consumer should be done.