A Study on Prevalence and Distribution of Subclinical Hypothyroidism in Rural Women

Subclinical hypothyroidism is mainly diagnosed by laboratory results as there are no presenting clinical signs and symptoms. There are only few studies done in prevalence and patterns of age distributions of subclinical hypothyroidism in India. Therefore the study was designed to estimate the prevalence and distribution of subclinical hypothyroidism in rural women. This study is a hospital based cross sectional study done at rural women attending Chennai Medical College Hospital and Research Centre, a tertiary care centre, Tiruchirappalli, Tamilnadu, India. More than 12 years of age group including adolescent, pregnant, older age groups are selected and investigated for subclinical hypothyroid by doing FT3, FT4 and TSH concentrations. Thyroid function tests are done in Clinical biochemistry Department by Enzyme Linked Immuno Sorbident Assay. Total number of 417 patients enrolled this study, 37(9%) patients were found to diagnose as subclinical hypothyroidism, 32(8%) patients were found to be hypothyroid patients. The mean value of Subclinical hypothyroid Group were FT3 137.23±40.35, FT4 7.3 ± 51.65, TSH 9.26±3.06. Hypothyroid group were FT3 51.98±16.60, FT4 3.76±1.38, TSH 18.86±11.36, Euthyroid group were FT3 131.74±8.33, FT4 7.64±0.13, TSH 2.63±0.14, There is an increase in distribution of number of cases of subclinical hypothyroidism as the age advances from 15 years to 67 years. (15-25 years n=2, 26-35 years n=4, 36-45 years n=6, 4655years n=11, 55-67 years n=14). The present study has identified that the prevalence of subclinical hypothyroidism in females is found to be 9%, which is more when compared to frank hypothyroidism and the pattern of distribution of subclinical hypothyroidism increases as the age advances.