Availability of adequately iodized salt at household levels and associated factors in Afar region, North East Ethiopia

Anwar Seid^*, Ousman Ahmed , Frewoyin Yilma , Negimu Biza

* Presenter: anuseid@gmail.com

Background: Globally 1.88 billion people live in areas of iodine deficiency. Over half of the children with low intakes are in two regions: 76 million children in South East Asia and 58 million children in Africa. World health organization recommended that 90% of the household should get iodized salt at least 15 ppm for the successful management of iodine deficiency disorders in a population. The main objective of this study was to assess the availability of iodized salt and associated factors among households in Afar region Ethiopia.

Methods and Materials: A Community based cross-sectional study was conducted among 549 households in Afar region, from Nov 01 to 30, 2017 G.C. Multi stage with Stratified and systematic random sampling was used to select the households. Data were collected  using a structured questionnaire and sampled salt was  tested by Rapid test kit. Then the data were entered into Epidata 3.1 and exported to Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0 for analysis. Finally appropriate descriptive analysis was used to describe socio demographic characteristic of the participants and logistic regression was done to assess association of factors with availability of iodized salt. The odds ratio was compared with 95% confidence interval (CI) and P-value <0.05 was used to declare association.

Result: The study revealed that availabilty of adequate iodized salt at household level was 38.1 % [95% CI: 33.9 – 42.3]. Type of salt used  [AOR=1.86 , 95% CI: 1.075, 3.241], Type of container used [AOR=4.42, 95% CI: 2.53, 7.73] , place of storage [AOR=2.03, 95% CI: 1.271, 3.273) and duration of storage  [AOR=1.66, 95% CI: 1.003 , 2.760] were factors statistically associated with availabilty of adequate iodized salt at household.

Conclusion and Recommendation: availabilty of adequately iodized salt at household level in the study area was low. Type of salt used, type of container used for storage, place of storage and duration of storage were factors associated with the availability of iodized salt. Hence, households should be sensitized about importance of iodized salt and its proper handling at the household level.

Keywords: Adequacy, Iodized salt, household level, Afar