The Interplay between Demographic Factors, Household Iodized Salt, and Urinary Iodine Concentration in School-Aged Children of Abarkouh, Iran

Background: In Abarkouh, despite Iran's national iodine sufficiency, the stability of iodine levels in salt and the influence of demographic factors on IDD risk in this specific population have not been thoroughly assessed. This study aims to determine the quantitative relationships between urinary iodine concentration (UIC), the prevalence of goiter, and behavioral disorders as a consequence of height, weight, and salt iodine concentration. Methods: The urinary and salt iodine concentrations were measured using the Chlorometric method and iodine detector kit, respectively. The differences between the two groups and the relationship between these variables and endpoints were determined using t-test and Pearson correlation with a significance level of 0.05, respectively. Quantitative relationships between them were also modeled using linear and nonlinear models’ artificial neural network (ANN) in MATLAB2020. Results: According to the results and linear modeling, iodine concentration and behavioral disorders based on variables of height, weight, and iodine salt concentration were randomly distributed. Also, limited nonlinear relationships between UIC and variables of height, weight, salt iodine concentration and behavioral disorders were obtained as a consequence of variables of height, weight, salt iodine concentration, and urinary output in ANN (R