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Dietary iodine sources other than fish

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 56, pages 467–468 (2002)Cite this article

Rasmussen et al (2001) recently developed a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (SQFFQ) for ascertaining iodine intake in Denmark and assessed the relative validity of the SQFFQ by comparison with 4 day weighed diet records and iodine excretion in 24 h urine as references. The authors also evaluated the validity of the questionnaire in terms of intake of fish and fish products by comparing with simple 3 month records of fish intake. We would like to make some comments regarding this matter, from a Japanese perspective.

For prevention of hypo- or hyper-thyroiditis, all major iodine sources: that is, foods with high concentrations, including fortified salt (Hess et al, 2001), which are frequently consumed in relatively large portion sizes, need to be taken into consideration. However, the authors assessed the validity of the questionnaire mainly based on fish and fish products, even though their intake is not particularly frequent in Denmark, while listing milk and diary products, their biggest iodine providers, in the questionnaire but not conducting assays in depth because of seasonal and geographical variation in iodine content in animal food additives as well as milk itself. We therefore wonder why the relative validity was nonetheless satisfactorily high and what percentage contribution to not only absolute but also variance intake of iodine was brought about by fish and fish products vs milk and dairy products. The authors presumably developed the SQFFQ systematically, choosing informative foods based on weighed diet records as absolute contributors according to contribution analysis and as variance contributors according to multiple regression analysis (Mark et al, 1996; Stryker et al, 1991).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health, Nagoya City University Medical School, Nagoya, Japan

    S Tokudome

  2. Nagoya-Bunri College, Nagoya, Japan

    Y Tokudome

  3. APJCP Editorial Office, APOCP Training Centre, Bangkok, Thailand

    MA Moore

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Tokudome, S., Tokudome, Y. & Moore, M. Dietary iodine sources other than fish. Eur J Clin Nutr 56, 467–468 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601380

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