Abstract:
The objective of this study was to assess the knowledge and
practices of iodized salt intake and use by households in
South Kordofan, with regard to iodine deficiency disorders.
The focus of the study was on people who have role in
making decision about which food and cooking material to be
used in the home. A combination of cluster and simple
random sampling techniques was used to select the
respondents from all the districts in South Kordofan. A total
sample of 380 households was interviewed. Analysis of the
findings was carried out using SPSS and significance tested
using χ2. Only 252 household heard about iodized salt. The
results revealed that only 7.2% of respondents indicated that,
they used iodized salt for cooking. The reason given by users
of common salt was the price of iodized salt which is
expensive than common salt and knowledge of iodized salt
was relatively high, as 66.4% (20.3 % for male & 46.1% for
female) of the respondents indicated that they had heard about
iodized salt. Awareness about health benefits of iodized salt
among female was extremely good than male (56.7%for
female & 17.9 %for male respectively). 49.6% of the female
stored their salt in Polythene bag, Also results shows that
41.1% of the respondents (9.9% for male and 30.2 for female)
adding iodized salt at the end of cooking. The study found
that 29.2% of the respondents had diagnosis with iodine
deficiency disorders (IDD). There is an urgent need to
increase efforts to using iodized salt and know the correct
methods of conservation and add-on and existing laws and
policies on universal salt iodization and quality assurance of
iodized salt from the production stage to the
distribution/selling stage had to be enforced.
