PREVALENCE OF GOITER AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN 6-12 YEARS AGE IN ANCHAR WOREDA, WEST HARARGE ZONE, OROMIA REGION, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Background: Iodine-deficiency disorders are a major public health problem in Ethiopia and its deficiency causes goiter, brain damage in infants, retarded psychomotor development in infants and children, impaired cognitive development and impede children’s learning ability. Most of the studies conducted in Ethiopia among school age children did not use urinary analysis that may decrease the strength of evidence. Objective: To estimate the prevalence of goiter and associated factors among primary school children 6-12 years age in Anchar woreda, West Hararghe zone, Oromia region, Ethiopia from February 13 to 30, 2017. Methods: A school based cross sectional study was conducted on sample of 407 students. Simple random sampling was applied to select children from 8 primary schools. Data were collected using structured questionnaire with face to face interview, formats for physical examination, urinary iodine test and household salt iodine content by experienced health officers and BSc nurses. Bivariate and multivariate analysis was used to determine the association between dependent and independent variables. Statistical significance was declared at p-value <0.05. Results: This study indicated that the Prevalence of goiter was (51.8%)(95% CI=46.9-56.8)) with grade 1 goiter magnitude of 42% (95% CI= (37.1-46.9)) and grade 2 magnitude 9.8% (95% CI= (7.4-12.8)). Children whose families consumed salt with inadequate iodine contents (AOR =3.570, 95 % CI (1.311-9.717)) and children whose families monthly income was less than 500 birr (AOR=3.587, 95% CI (1.892-6.802)), children who consumed cabbage on daily basis (AOR=11.151, 95% CI (2.913 -42.694)), older children (AOR=2.55, 95% CI (1.274-3.993)), children whose father had no formal education (AOR=2.00, 95% CI (1.194-3.351)) and those children who did not consume any egg (AOR=3.230 95% CI (1.474-7.079)), were found to have a goiter Conclusion and Recommendation: A large proportion of the children had goiter as compared to similar studies in Ethiopia which is sever public health problem. The utilization of iodized salt at household level was very low as compared to national survey result. In this study the consumption of inadequate iodine level in the salt, income status of the guardians, daily feeding of cabbage, older age, urinary iodine deficiency, educational status of father and not consuming any egg were identified as positively significant associated factors with goiter. Moreover, further study should be done to explore more information about the association of eggs with goiter.