The Prevalence of Endemic Goiter in Keban County in Elazığ City and Evalution of Iodine Levels

Endemic goiter and iodine deficiency are serious health problems all over the world. Approximately 1 billion people are under risk of iodine deficiency with more than 300.000 of them have goiter. Iodine deficiency is still an important health problem in Europe as well as in Turkey. A total of 253 people between 15 and 88 years old of which 103 were male and 150 were female from Keban County in Elazig city, which was considered to be a region of endemic goiter, were recruited to this study. Goiter was found by palpation in 54% of the males and 33% of the females (averagely 45.4% for both sexes). Among the subjects, 24.6% of the females and 24.6% of the males (22.9% of all subjects) were found to have goiter by ultrasonography (US) according to the criteria established by Gutekunts R. Mean urinary iodine amount was 17.08 µg/dl. Urinary iodine level was found to be higher than 10 µg/dl in 79.4% of the subjects while it was found to be less than 2 µg/ dl in 2.7%, 2 to 5 µg/dl in 4.7% and 5 to 10 µg/dl in 13.0% of the subjects. Urinary excretion of iodine was found to be higher in the group of subjects with goiter than group of the subjects without goiter but the difference was not significant (p > 0.05). In conclusion, US revealed moderate goiter while urinary iodine investigations revealed mild iodine deficiency. It has been thought that it was likely for this situation to be attributed to iodine supplementation application in the salt preparations lasting over the last 3 years in ou r country as well as to other factors.