Hypothyroidism: Study of Prevalence and Environmental Exposures as Risk Factors

Background: Thyroid diseases are common worldwide. In India too, there is a significant burden of thyroid diseases and 42 million people in India are estimated to suffer from them. Environmental factors pose a significant risk of thyroid dysfunction under certain circumstances which may be intentional, inadvertent, or accidental. The need to investigate the potential harm posed by these factors in the quantities commonly encountered is emphasized. And along with this, there is ignorance and a lack of perception about this problem.

Objective: To study the prevalent risk factors (non-modifiable and modifiable) of hypothyroidism and to estimate the strength of the association of these risk factors and the occurrence of the disease.

Materials and Methods: This case-control study was conducted at a teaching hospital, in Punjab, India. A predesigned and pretested questionnaire was used to collect data. A total of 108 cases with hypothyroidism and 107 control subjects were included in this study.

Result: About 54.33% of hypothyroid cases were observed to be lying in the age group of > 40-50 years out of which 6.14% were male and 93.8% female cases. There was a significant association between modifiable risk factors (pollution, type of diet and cooking oil) and hypothyroidism, while non-modifiable risk factors (age, weight) were not significantly associated.

Conclusion: Hypothyroidism is a common prevailing disorder in the adult Indian population. Hypothyroidism is a disease of multifactorial causation.