Background: Recent regional and germanwide investigations have shown that the abolition of the requirement to declare iodine in foodstuffs and the greater emphasis on information about goitre prevention led to an increase in urinary iodine excretion in German schoolchildren. There was also a decrease in thyroid size and goitre prevalence in children. No up to date results in adults for the whole of Germany are available.
Methods: In 2005 we examined the urinary iodine excretion in the spontaneous morning urine of 1 538 healthy adults in 357 places from all over Germany. The iodine was measured by the Cer- arsenit method.
Results: The median iodine excretion amounted to 132 microg/l. There were no significant differences between age groups, sexes or regions. 64% had no iodine deficiency (>100 microg/l). In 23% the deficiency was slight (50-99 microg/l), in 10% moderate (20-49 microg/l) and in 3% there was severe iodine deficiency (<20 microg/l). 29% excreted >200 microg iodide per litre urine.
Conclusion: According to the WHO guidelines, there is no longer an iodine deficiency in German adults.
(c) J. A. Barth Verlag in Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart. New York.