Hypothyroidism in an urban slum area: A hidden epidemic
Article Type : Original Article
Author Details:
Volume : 6
Issue : 3
Online ISSN : 2348-7682
Print ISSN : 2249-8176
Article First Page : 142
Article End Page : 146
Abstract
Hypothyroidism is emerging as a common health problem in India. However, there are only few studies on the prevalence of hypothyroidism in adult population of India.A hospital based participative study was undertaken among adult population of UHTC of tertiary care hospital. All adult male and female natives residing in that urban area for at least 5 years were invited to participate in a general health check up camp and those persons who consented for their participation by contributing charges for their investigations were included in this study. Patients with history of hypothyroidism who are taking treatment or those with serum free T4< 0.89 ng/dl and TSH > 5.5 µIU/ml were considered as having hypothyroidism. It was reflected that as age increases risk of developing hypothyroidism also increases thus age is an independent risk factor for hypothyroidism with P value of 0.017 which is statistically significant. More number of females (22.69%) than males (6.89%) were affected by hypothyroidism and the difference in the gender was found to be statistically highly significant.(P – 0.006) with females having four times more risk of hypothyroidism. Subjects having family history of thyroid disorders were 3 times more prone to hypothyroidism than those without family history. The difference being statistically highly significant.(P – 0.002).There was 2 times more risk of hypothyroidism in subjects with BMI ? 25.Prevalence of hypothyroidism was higher among female gender and increases with age. The family history and obesity were found to have significant association with hypothyroidism.
Keywords: Hypothyroidism, Iodine deficiency disorder, Non Communicable Diseases, prevalence of hypothyroidism, Thyroid disorders
Doi No:-10.18231