Background. There are laws to enforce the universal iodization of salt to check the consequences of iodine deficiency in Ghana. These laws are to ensure that there are production and sales of iodized salt in the country. Yet, the availability of iodized salt in the county's households is still not encouraging, with data indicating that 93.8% of children have urine iodine <100 μg/dl. Hence, the study investigated the iodine content of salt in retail shops and knowledge of iodized salt among retailers in the Wa East District. The study will help the informed decision on strengthening and enforcing laws to achieve the universal salt iodization and the consumption of adequate iodized salt. Method. The study was a descriptive cross-sectional survey. We used a questionnaire to collect quantitative data from participants and a rapid field test kits to determine the iodine content of salt. STATA version 14.2 was used to analyse data. Chi-squared and logistic regression models were used to examine the association between the dependent and independent variables and considered value <0.05 as statistically significant. Findings. The retailers’ primary source of information about iodized salt was health workers (46.2%), with the majority (52.8%) of them having low knowledge of iodized salt. Notwithstanding the high knowledge of iodized salt, as high as 53.8% of the salts do not have adequate iodine (<15 ppm). Retailer’s sex (), educational level (), primary source of information about iodized salt (), texture of salt being sold (), and mode of displaying salt in the shop () were associated with knowledge of iodised salt. Again, retailer’s educational level (), knowledge of iodized salt (), texture of salt being sold (), and method of displaying the salt being sold () were associated with an iodine content of the salt in the shop. Conclusions. Though policies have been implemented to promote production and consumption of iodized salt, the iodine content of salt in retail shops in the Wa East are not encouraging. We recommend the establishment of checkpoints along the production and distribution chain to ensure salt with adequate iodine reaches the consumer. Again, traders of iodized salt should have regular training on ways to preserve salt to maintain its iodine content.

中文翻译：

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加纳上西部地区Wa East区零售商店中的碘盐含量和零售商对碘盐的知识

背景。有法律强制对食盐加碘，以检查加纳碘缺乏的后果。这些法律是为了确保该国有碘盐的生产和销售。然而，在县的家庭碘盐的可用性仍然不鼓励，具有数据指示的儿童93.8％有尿碘<100  μ克/分升。因此，该研究调查了零售商店中盐的碘含量以及Wa East地区零售商中的碘盐知识。这项研究将有助于就加强和执行法律以实现全民食盐加碘和食用适量加碘盐的明智决定。方法。该研究是描述性的横断面调查。我们使用调查表收集参与者的定量数据，并使用快速现场检测试剂盒确定盐的碘含量。STATA版本14.2用于分析数据。卡方和逻辑回归模型用于检验因变量和自变量之间的关联，并认为值<0.05具有统计学意义。调查结果。零售商有关碘盐的主要信息来源是卫生工作者（46.2％），其中大多数人（52.8％）对碘盐的知识不高。尽管对碘盐有很高的了解，但高达53.8％的盐没有足够的碘（<15 ppm）。零售商的性别（），教育程度（），有关碘盐的主要信息来源（），所售盐的质地（），以及在商店中显示盐的方式（）与碘盐知识有关。同样，零售商的教育水平（），碘盐知识（），所售盐的质地（），以及展示所售盐的方法（）与商店中盐的碘含量有关。结论。尽管已实施了促进碘盐生产和消费的政策，但Wa East零售商店中的碘盐含量并不令人鼓舞。我们建议在生产和分销链中建立检查站，以确保含碘量足够的食盐到达消费者手中。同样，碘盐贸易商应定期接受有关如何保存盐以保持其碘含量的培训。