Study on prevalence of iodine deficiency disorders among rural pregnant women in Uttarakhand.

Pregnancy, goiter, Urinary iodine excretion, Socio economic status.

The present study was undertaken in the rural areas of Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttaranchal to find out the prevalence of iodine deficiency disorders among pregnant women. For the purpose, a total of 200 pregnant women irrespective of their trimesters of pregnancy were included as subjects from 21 villages or localities. Those subjects were then followed every trimester for the collection of required information till their babies were born. The baseline and data was collected by using a pretested interview schedule and the socio economic status was calculated. The estimation of urinary iodine excretion of the subjects was also done. The clinical signs showed a total of 25.51 subjects had goiter. Iodine deficiency was found in 51.7% women. The mean urinary iodine excretion among deficient and normal pregnant women was 5.55�2.70 ?g/dl and 11.88�1.62 ?g/dl respectively. A significant difference was observed in the urinary iodine status as per socio economic status of subjects.