The message now seems to have passed on to the population: use a little salt but iodate, to prevent diseases related to excessive sodium intake and those related to a lack of iodine nutrition.
Between 2016 and 2019 almost 6 out of 10 paid attention or tried to reduce the amount of salt consumed at the table, in the preparation of foods and in the consumption of those stored.
This is what emerges from the PASSI surveillance data published by the Higher Institute of Health.
On the basis of interviews with about 130,000 people, it emerged that 71% use iodized salt, a percentage close to the 85-90% recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
These results are consistent with the surveillance carried out by the National Observatory for the Monitoring of Iodoprophylaxis in Italy (Osnami) at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità which, based on the urinary iodine concentration in a sample of school-age children residing in nine regions Italians, has demonstrated the achievement of iodosufficiency in our country.
Furthermore, ultrasound scans of the thyroid gland done in the same children showed the progressive disappearance of the goiter in school age in all regions, an indicator of stable iodine insufficiency over time.
Now the commitment, comments the ISS, will have to continue to have an ever greater reduction in the frequency of diseases related to iodine deficiency (goiter, nodules, congenital hypothyroidism, more aggressive thyroid tumors) with targeted and effective actions.
In particular, it will be necessary to eliminate the inequalities that have emerged, such as the greater use of iodized salt in the North compared to the Center and South and among the most advantaged people in terms of economics and education.
(HANDLE).