Abstract

The essential mineral iodine plays an important role in early growth, cellular metabolism and the proper development of the brain; data on the daily dietary intake of iodine by adolescents in residential care orphanages in Ghana are scarce. Consequently, the adequacy of their dietary intake of iodine cannot be assessed. The dietary intake of iodine by adolescents in three residential care orphanages (Osu, Tutu-Akwapim and Teshie) in Southern Ghana have been evaluated by sampling the 24 h duplicate diets of the adolescents for 7-consecutive days using the duplicate diet sampling technique. The iodine content was determined by radiochemical neutron activation analysis (RNAA). Mean daily iodine content in the blended lyophilized 24 h duplicate diets were 287 ± 95, 286 ± 109 and 961 ± 142 ng g^-1 lyophilized matter for Osu, Tutu-Akwapim and Teshie orphanages, respectively. The average iodine intake by the adolescents were 102 ± 25, 115 ± 25 and 340 ± 117 μg day^-1 for Osu, Tutu-Akwapim and Teshie orphanages, respectively. The intake of iodine by Osu and Tutu adolescents though lower than the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of 150 μg day^-1, are within the normal 100 to 150 µg day^-1 iodine intake common in non-iodine deficient countries of the world.

Key words: Ghana, adolescents, dietary intake, duplicate diet, iodine, orphanage.