IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i14p7644-d596606.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Iodine Deficiency Disorders as a Predictor of Stunting among Primary School Children in the Aseer Region, Southwestern Saudi Arabia

Author

Listed:
  • Fuad I. Abbag

    (Department of Child Health, College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Abha 61421, Saudi Arabia)

  • Saeed A. Abu-Eshy

    (Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Abha 61421, Saudi Arabia)

  • Ahmed A. Mahfouz

    (Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Abha 61421, Saudi Arabia)

  • Mohammed A. Alsaleem

    (Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Abha 61421, Saudi Arabia)

  • Safar A. Alsaleem

    (Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Abha 61421, Saudi Arabia)

  • Ayyub A. Patel

    (Department of Clinical Biochemistry, College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Abha 61421, Saudi Arabia)

  • Tarek M. Mirdad

    (Department of Orthopedics, College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Abha 61421, Saudi Arabia)

  • Ayed A. Shati

    (Department of Child Health, College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Abha 61421, Saudi Arabia)

  • Nabil J. Awadalla

    (Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Abha 61421, Saudi Arabia)

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate the present occurrence of stunting and explore the role of iodine deficiency disorders (IDDs) as a predictor of stunting among primary school children in the Aseer Region. Methods: In a cross-sectional investigation on school children in the Aseer region, thyroid enlargement was evaluated clinically. Urine was collected to evaluate iodine content. Results: The present study involved 3046 school-age pupils. The study disclosed a total goiter rate of 24.0% (95% CI: 22.5–25.5%). The median urinary iodine content (UIC) was 17.0 µg/L. A prevalence of stunting (height for age z score of less than −2) of 7.8% (95% CI: 6.9–8.8%) was found. In a logistic regression model, pupils having clinical goiter (aOR = 1.739; 95% CI: 1.222–2.475) and students having UIC of less than 17 µg/L (aOR = 1.934; 95% CI: 1.457–2.571) were considerably related with stunting. In the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, urinary iodine content to forecast stunting was good (AUC = 0.611, 95% CI: 0.594–0.629). The curve recognized the optimum cutoff point of urinary iodine content to be ≤19.0 µg/L. The sensitivity was 59.66% (95% CI: 53.1–66.0) and the specificity was 57.62% (95% CI: 55.8–59.5). Conclusion: The present study showed that stunting among school-aged children presents a mild public health problem. On the other hand, a severe iodine deficiency situation was revealed among school children in the Aseer region. Continuous monitoring of iodine status among school children is therefore necessary. Concerted interventions that blend nutrition-sensitive with nutrition-specific approaches are expected to influence decreasing stunting significantly.

Suggested Citation

  • Fuad I. Abbag & Saeed A. Abu-Eshy & Ahmed A. Mahfouz & Mohammed A. Alsaleem & Safar A. Alsaleem & Ayyub A. Patel & Tarek M. Mirdad & Ayed A. Shati & Nabil J. Awadalla, 2021. "Iodine Deficiency Disorders as a Predictor of Stunting among Primary School Children in the Aseer Region, Southwestern Saudi Arabia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-9, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:14:p:7644-:d:596606
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/14/7644/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/14/7644/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pradhan, Menno & Sahn, David E. & Younger, Stephen D., 2003. "Decomposing world health inequality," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 271-293, March.
    2. Blessing J. Akombi & Stanley Chitekwe & Berhe W. Sahle & Andre M.N. Renzaho, 2019. "Estimating the Double Burden of Malnutrition among 595,975 Children in 65 Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Meta-Analysis of Demographic and Health Surveys," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-11, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tomoki Fujii, 2013. "Geographic decomposition of inequality in health and wealth: evidence from Cambodia," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 11(3), pages 373-392, September.
    2. Diana Gutiérrez Posada & Fernando Rubiera Morollón & Ana Viñuela, 2018. "Ageing Places in an Ageing Country: The Local Dynamics of the Elderly Population in Spain," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 109(3), pages 332-349, July.
    3. Benin, Samuel & Mugarura, Samuel, 2006. "Determinants of change in household level of consumption and poverty in Uganda, 1992/93 - 1999/00," DSGD discussion papers 27, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    4. David E. Sahn & Stephen D. Younger, 2017. "The Incidence of Child Health Improvements," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(2), pages 304-320, May.
    5. Ximing Wu & Andreas Savvides & Thanasis Stengos, 2008. "The Global Joint Distribution of Income and Health," Working Papers 0807, University of Guelph, Department of Economics and Finance.
    6. H. Eme Ichoku & William Fonta & Michael Thiede, 2011. "Socioeconomic gradients in self-rated health: a developing country case study of Enugu State, Nigeria," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 179-202, August.
    7. World Bank, 2013. "Burkina Faso : Non-Monetary Poverty and Gender Inequalities, 1993-2010 Trends," World Bank Publications - Reports 15992, The World Bank Group.
    8. Nicolas Gravel & Brice Magdalou & Patrick Moyes, 2021. "Ranking distributions of an ordinal variable," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 71(1), pages 33-80, February.
    9. David E. Sahn, 2012. "Health Inequality across Populations of Individuals," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 24(4), pages 316-326, December.
    10. repec:aru:wpaper:201203 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Michaud, Pierre-Carl & van Soest, Arthur, 2008. "Health and wealth of elderly couples: Causality tests using dynamic panel data models," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 1312-1325, September.
    12. Daniel Suryadarma & Wenefrida Dwi Widyanti & Asep Suryahadi & Sudarno Sumarto, "undated". "From Access to Income: Regional and Ethnic Inequality in Indonesia," Working Papers 356, Communications Section.
    13. Duclos, Jean-Yves & Leblanc, Josée & Sahn, David E., 2011. "Comparing population distributions from bin-aggregated sample data: An application to historical height data from France," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 419-437.
    14. Baltzer, Markus & Baten, Jörg, 2008. "Height, trade, and inequality in the Latin American periphery, 1950-2000," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 191-203, July.
    15. Heshmati, Almas, 2004. "Inequalities and Their Measurement," IZA Discussion Papers 1219, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Blum, Matthias, 2013. "The influence of inequality on the standard of living: Worldwide anthropometric evidence from the 19th and 20th centuries," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 436-452.
    17. Sadegh Bakhtiari & Hossein Meisami, 2010. "An empirical investigation of the effects of health and education on income distribution and poverty in Islamic countries," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 37(4), pages 293-301, March.
    18. repec:pra:mprapa:59643 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Rob Clark & Kara Snawder, 2020. "A Cross-National Analysis of Lifespan Inequality, 1950–2015: Examining the Distribution of Mortality Within Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 148(3), pages 705-732, April.
    20. Aizawa, Toshiaki, 2019. "Ex-ante Inequality of Opportunity in Child Malnutrition: New Evidence from Ten Developing Countries in Asia," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 144-161.
    21. Boyle, Michael H. & Racine, Yvonne & Georgiades, Katholiki & Snelling, Dana & Hong, Sungjin & Omariba, Walter & Hurley, Patricia & Rao-Melacini, Purnima, 2006. "The influence of economic development level, household wealth and maternal education on child health in the developing world," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(8), pages 2242-2254, October.
    22. Schultz, T. Paul, 2010. "Population and Health Policies," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4785-4881, Elsevier.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:14:p:7644-:d:596606. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.