Abstract
BACKGROUND: Iodine deficiency is a major public health problem in Ethiopia. Most of the studies in Ethiopia were done on clinical goiter without assessing the subclinical iodine deficiency. Therefore, there was a need to study the magnitude and associated factors of iodine deficiency among school-age children in Eastern Ethiopia. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A school-based cross-sectional study design was used to assess the iodine level of 200 primary school children aged 6-12 years who were selected by using the multistage sampling technique. The study used an interview-administered questionnaire and checklists to collect data from the respondents. Data were entered to EpiData version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 22.0 for analysis. Bivariable and multivariable analyses were conducted, and statistical significance was declared at p value ≤0.05. RESULTS: The median urinary iodine concentration of the children was 146 µg/L, and 31% had median urinary iodine concentration below the acceptable level (<100 µg/L). Female sex (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]=3.12, 95% CI: 1.52, 6.39), family size ≥5 (AOR=2.24, 95% CI: 1.06, 4.75), having no awareness of a balanced diet (AOR=3.25, 95% CI: 1.37, 7.71), and cabbage consumption ≥2 times per week (AOR=3.01, 95% CI: 1.31, 6.93) were the significant associated factors. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION: Ethiopia is implementing the universal iodization of salt. However, urinary iodine deficiency and utilization of inadequately iodized salt were high in the study area. Therefore, the health sectors of the study site should disseminate messages to increase the awareness on iodized salt, iodine-rich foods, and goiterogens.