ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Thyroid Endocrinology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1582610
Iodine supplementation for pregnancy in Portugal: identification of nutritional composition and characterization of pharmacy dispenses from 2008-2022
Provisionally accepted
Sarai Isabel Machado1
Susana Roque1
Maria Lopes-Pereira1,2
Maria José Costeira1,3Patrício Costa1
Nuno Borges4Ruben Pereira5Zilda Mendes5Teixeira António5
Joana A Palha1*- 1Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Medicine, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal, Braga, Braga, Portugal
- 2Hospital de Braga, Braga, Braga, Portugal
- 3Hospital da Senhora da Oliveira Guimarães, Guimarães, Portugal
- 4Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
- 5Centre for Health Evaluation & Research of the National Association of Pharmacies (CEFAR-ANF), Lisboa, Portugal
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Background: Iodine is essential for the proper development of the central nervous system. In Portugal, despite of self-reports of iodine supplements intake by pregnant women, iodine deficiency still prevails.This study intended to characterize the pharmacy sales of iodine-containing supplements and their use by women in Portugal.Data from all available supplements with indication for use in the prenatal time, for the period 2008-2022, was obtained from the Portuguese Association of Pharmacies. To infer from the use of iodine supplements by women during preconception, pregnancy and lactation, pharmacy dispenses, between 2019 and 2021, were collected from a sample of female consumers, identified with at least one prescription.Results: Eighty-eight per cent of the iodine-containing supplements, state the recommended iodine concentration. The annual sales increased continuously, reaching an estimated of 109 µg per day in 2022. Estimated mean duration of supplementation to women prescribed with iodine-containing supplements for preconception/pregnancy/lactation was of 4.5 months (SD = 3.8) and less than 1% of women was covered for the advisable period of 18 months.The estimated duration of iodine supplementation to women during preconception, pregnancy and lactation is below recommendations. Additional public health measures, such as universal salt iodization and literacy campaigns are needed to ensure iodine sufficiency to women and their developing foetus.
Keywords: Pregnancy, Public Health, Iodine, iodine deficiency, supplementation
Received: 24 Feb 2025; Accepted: 01 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Machado, Roque, Lopes-Pereira, Costeira, Costa, Borges, Pereira, Mendes, António and Palha. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Joana A Palha, Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Medicine, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal, Braga, Braga, Portugal
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