Availability of adequately iodized salt at household level in Dessie and Combolcha Towns, South Wollo, Ethiopia

Background: Iodine deficiency disorder is the leading cause of mental retardation and poor economic performance in developing countries. Worldwide, universal salt iodization has been implemented to eliminate iodine deficiency. However, the adequacy of iodine in salts needs close monitoring to meet its intended goal and this study was aimed at investigating the adequacy of iodine in dietary salt at household level in Dessie and Combolcha Towns. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was employed at household level in Dessie and Combolcha towns from January to February, 2017. Data were collected from 753 households using systematic sampling technique. The adequacy of iodine in salt was analyzed using rapid testing kit. Socio-demographic and economic, dietary sources, labeling, packaging, storage and cooking methods of household's characteristics were collected via questionnaire developed using open data kit tool and STATA version 12 was used for further statistical analysis. Ordinal Logistic regression was performed to assess associations between explanatory variables and the response variable. Results: Nearly one-thrid (31.2%) of the households used inadequate iodized salt, which was below the World Health Organization recommendation level (≥15 ppm at the household level). Most of the respondents from Combolcha town (64.6%) were affected by inadequate use of iodized salt as compared to Dessie Town residents (22.2%). Being Dessie resident (OR = 2.53; 95% CI: 1.31-4.90), households with better socioeconomic status (OR = 2.54; 95% CI:1.10-5.87), site of labeling and packing (salt from open market (OR = 0.10; 95% CI: 0.04-0.23) and no exposure to sunlight (OR = 2.54; 95% CI:1.31-4.91) were the predictors of adequacy of iodized salt at household level. Conclusions: Availability of adequately iodized salt at the household level in the study area was low. There should be regular quality control and regulatory enforcement of salt iodization at production, labeling and packaging sites of small scale industries and at household level.