Jodmangel og skolebørn i Australien

[Anisa]

Jod-nyhed fra Australien

Jodmangel kan til dels forklare, hvorfor australske skoleelever bliver slået i internationale tests af skolelever i bl.a. Korea, Singapore og Hong Kong. Iflg. resultater af international konkurrence i forskellige skolefag - ligger Australien på fjerde år som nr. 27 i verden i skrivning, nr. 22 i naturfag samt som nr. 18 i matematik.

Korea, Singapore og Hong Kong. Alle disse steder svarer jodindtaget i kosten til, hvad i vores del af verden kaldes for "betydelig overdose". Før dem er det højeste PISA-score er Shanghai og Taiwan Province. Af alle 29 kinesiske provinser - kun Shanghai og Taiwan har ikke jodmangel.

På PISA's hjemmeside kan man se 2012 resultater, og alle jod-lande befinder sig øverst (PDF).

Almost 1-in-3 Korean students are top performers. Among OECD countries, Korea has the highest proportion of students who are "top performers" in mathematics - around 31%. That's well ahead of the average for OECD countries of around 13%, but behind the overall leader, Shanghai, China, where over half of students are top performers. http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings...12-results.htm

Students from Singapore and Korea have performed best in the OECD PISA first assessment of creative problem-solving. Students in these countries are quick learners, highly inquisitive and able to solve unstructured problems in unfamiliar contexts. http://www.oecd.org/education/singap...lving-test.htm

Australien har planlagt at opnå placeringen indenfor verdens top-5 i 2025, så nu er australske myndigheder og forskere begyndt søgen efter årsager til, at australske børns skolefærdigheder er faldende

The presence of iodine deficiency in a population has significant implications. Mild iodine deficiency is associated with neurological deficits and hearing impairments. Studies from Sydney have indicated the emergence of iodine deficiency in large samples of neonates.1 Changing patterns of thyroid-stimulating hormone concentrations in newborns may provide another biological indicator of iodine deficiency in at-risk populations. Iodine deficiency in populations of schoolchildren and neonates raises the question of whether this reflects an increasing prevalence of iodine deficiency in our community as a whole. Larger, controlled studies of population subgroups would be able to answer this question.

If the presence of iodine deficiency is confirmed through a nationwide study, then a national program of iodine supplementation will need to be considered. The choice of vehicle is important because of health-related limitations on salt intake. Treatment of population iodine-deficiency states is ineffective unless the food supplemented with iodine can be distributed throughout the population. Whether bread or salt is chosen as the appropriate vehicle for iodine, distribution and social marketing remain the key to successful eradication of iodine deficiency.

Our study has indicated the presence of mild iodine deficiency in a cohort of Melbourne schoolchildren. Our results support other available data on iodine status in Sydney and Tasmania to make a strong argument for a national study of iodine nutrition.

Kilde: The Medical Journal of Australia Iodine deficiency and goitre in schoolchildren in Melbourne, 2001