Iodine ignorance: Irish researchers call for public health campaign

FAB RESEARCH COMMENT:

Long-time FAB supporters will already know that in the UK, around one third of mothers-to be show mild-to-moderate iodine deficiency during pregnancy - and that there is good evidence that this is significantly reducing the verbal IQ and reading achievement of British children.

Since then, however, public health authorities in the UK have done nothing to raise public awareness of this issue (or to tackle it as other developed countries do, via food fortification or recommendations for supplementation).

In this new study, researchers found that women of childbearing age in the UK and Ireland still generally know little about the importance of iodine during pregnancy, nor about good dietary sources of this key nutrient.

For details of this latest research, see:

• O'Kane et al 2016 - Iodine knowledge positively associated with dietary iodine intake among women of childbearing age in the UK and Ireland.

For more information on iodine in pregnancy - including practical information on which foods can help to meet dietary needs - see also the factsheet from the UK British Dietetic Association (BDA)

• Iodine - Food Facts

And more detailed information can be found from the US National Institutes of Health (although the US - and most other developed countries, use public health measures such as the iodisation of salt or other basic foodstuffs to increase population intakes, which is not the case in the UK).