Thyroid function and urinary iodine status in primary school age children of the hills and the plains of Eastern Nepal.

The aim of this study is to find out the iodine nutrition and thyroid function status of the school age children of Sunsari and Dhankuta districts. A total of 386 urine and 142 blood samples were randomly collected from four schools of above districts to estimate urinary iodine and thyroid hormones, respectively. Median UIE of Dhankuta and Sunsari were 238.00 ug/L and 294.96 ug/L respectively. Relatively higher percentage (31.8%) of subclinical hypothyroid cases was found in Sunsari than Dhankuta (29.59%).