Thus , regardless of study design , iodine deficiency had a substantial impact on mental development .
Several review s and meta-analyses have examined the effects of iodine on mental development .
None focused on young children , so they were incomplete in summarizing the effects on this important age group .
The current systematic review therefore examined the relationship between iodine and mental development of children 5 years old and under .
Prophylaxis of endemic goiter with iodized oil in rural Peru.
Three And ean villages at altitudes of 3,100 to 3,500 meters above sea level were studied in order to determine the prophylac— ' tic effect of iodized oil administration on endemic goiter \ and cretinism ( 1 ) . At the time of the study the population in | these villages was approximately 4,000 , with an annual growth ' rate of about three percent . In a group of 3,000 subjects i examined in a house-to-house survey , the visible goiter rate , : as defined in an accompanying paper ( 2 ) , was 55 percent . However , ? when the cccurrence of palpable goiter was considered as well , | the incidence of goiter rose to 83 percent . Fifty percent of * the children in the 0 - 5 yr age group were goitrous and of these , | 20 percent demonstrated visible goiter . Goiter prevalence l increased with age , as did nodularity . An example of this is ‘ shown in Fig. 1 . In some families every member was found with ii goiter as illustrated in Fig. 2 . Goiter was also found among 4 the domestic animals . The percentage of defective persons in the i three villages ranged from 1.0 to 3.6 percent . Although these _ . x villages are accessible by automobile , they are still quite remote * , and isolated
Thus , regardless of study design , iodine deficiency had a substantial impact on mental development .
Several review s and meta-analyses have examined the effects of iodine on mental development .
None focused on young children , so they were incomplete in summarizing the effects on this important age group .
The current systematic review therefore examined the relationship between iodine and mental development of children 5 years old and under .