Iodine supplements could help mums, babies and the economy

ConclusionThis economic modelling study predicted that giving iodine supplements to pregnant women would save the NHS money and benefit the infant and wider society by boosting their intelligence.  The study has based its analysis on the UK perspective, used systematic searches and expert input to inform the likely health and economic effects of iodine supplementation. A strong point of the study, as the authors say, is that they used a conservative approach. This meant they limited the possible benefits of iodine supplementation while overestimating the potential harms as much as possible. This suggests that the cost benefits and IQ gains may even be greater.However, it is important to realise that these predictions are only as reliable as the studies that contributed data – which will never be perfect. For example, information on how iodine deficiency in pregnancy affected IQ loss in the child came from only three observational studies. These could be affected by a range of bias and confounding factors limiting their reliability. This means that predictions about the exact number of IQ points that have been potentially lost by iodine deficiency in the mother could contain some error. Similarly, it is possible that the savings in terms of cost to health and society are not completely accurate. That said, it’s probably the best they could have done with the available data. For an individual pregnant woman reading this research in the media, cost savings to society are li...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Pregnancy/child Source Type: news