Objectives: To determine the level of knowledge regarding iodine nutrition and its relationship with socio-economic status in the South African population.
Design: A cross-sectional population survey collecting questionnaire information on knowledge of iodine nutrition and sociodemographic variables in a multistage, stratified, cluster study sample, representative of the adult South African population.
Setting: Home visits and personal interviews in the language of the respondent.
Subjects: Data were collected from one adult in each of the selected 2164 households, and the participation rate was 98%.
Results: Only 15.4% of respondents correctly identified iodised salt as the primary dietary source of iodine, 16.2% knew the thyroid gland needs iodine for its functioning, and a mere 3.9% considered brain damage, and 0.8% considered cretinism, as the most important health consequence of iodine deficiency. Compared with respondents from high socio-economic households, respondents from low socio-economic households were considerably less informed about aspects of iodine nutrition covered in this study.
Conclusions: The knowledge level of iodine nutrition is low among South Africans, particularly among the low socio-economic groups. These data suggest that the international emphasis on brain damage resulting from iodine deficiency has not been conveyed successfully to the consumer level in this country.