(P04-004-23) Capacity Building and Strengthening of Salt Iodine Monitoring Laboratories in Rural Endemic Areas of Uttar Pradesh India – Alternate Health Care Delivery

Objectives: Iodine deficiency remains a public health issue in many parts of India. Poor monitoring by governmental agencies is for lack of timely supply of consumables, unskilled work, frequent transfers, over-burdened staff and the absence of a system to collect household salt samples. Rural areas of largest state of Uttar Pradesh suffers from inequitable iodized salt distribution. We hypothesized that training and active involvement of high school chemistry teacher-student combine should provide a sustainable solution. We aimed training (a) Mentorship capable science teachers and (b) school going science students in art of salt iodine titration and (2) to check its validity of this approach under field conditions.

Methods: Task included establishment of one central Iodine Monitoring Laboratory (IML), sensitization of education ministry officials and principals of intermediate colleges to the problem of IDD and importance of IMLs at school levels. Distribution of reagents and glass ware to schools to enable them to analyze the salt iodine levels. Quality assurance exercise by students in barcoded control samples. The student’s analytical performance was graded as CV < 5% =A+, CV 5-10% = A and %CV > 10% -B.

Results: Training was imparted to a total of 10 teachers and 319 students. It involved selecting schools, sensitizing teachers and students, and subsequent training exercise in seven schools of six districts. The cost of training participants including teachers was approximately 15 USD per participant and of augmenting school laboratories was around 1000 USD. Students of class 11 in contrast to class 12 (board examination going) participated with more enthusiasm. Quality control exercise is reflected in performance characteristics of award-winning students. Award was given to students scoring A+ grade and all the students were given certificate of participation. Girl students constituted 33% of these trainees.

Conclusions: The issue of sustainability of program can be termed as successful given the cost per student training and minimal IML establishment expenses but needs more quantitative data analysis. May need change in curriculum and developing linkages between health delivery and education.

Funding Sources: Department of Science and Technology, GOI