Best indicator for monitoring the effectiveness of iodine deficiency control programme is: September 2009

Ans. A: None (Its Indices of Urinary excretion of Iodine) Neonatal hypothyroidism is a sensitive pointer to environmental iodine deficiency and is thus an effective indicator for monitoring the impact of the iodine deficiency control programme. Neonatal thyroid screening using serum thyrotropin (TSH) as the primary screening test detects not only permanent sporadic congenital hypothyroidism, whose incidence is about 1 per 4000 bihs, but also compensated or transient primary hypothyroidism, whose incidence can be as high as 1 in 10 neonates and whose main cause is iodine deficiency. Elevated serum TSH in the neonate indicates insufficient supply of thyroid hormones to the developing brain, and therefore, constitutes the only indicator that allows prediction of possible impairment of mental development at a population level, which is the main consequence of iodine deficiency. Therefore, the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), and the International Council for Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders (ICCIDD) included neonatal TSH as one of the indicators for assessing iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) and their control.