A community based prospective study on thyroid dysfunction among pregnant females and its effect on maternal and neonatal outcome

Abstract

Background: Thyroid disorders are often overlooked in pregnancy because of their non-specific symptoms and the hypermetabolic state of pregnancy. The laboratory measurements of thyroid function play an important role in the assessment of maternal thyroid health. Thyroid disorders can have grievous effect on mother and new-borne which can be prevented. The study was aimed to find the prevalence of thyroid dysfunction among pregnant females and its effect on maternal and neonatal outcome.Methods: A prospective study was conducted from August 2019 to October 2020 among 360 pregnant females in the rural fields practice area of a medical college. Thyroid function test was done in all pregnant females and the maternal and neonatal outcome was noted.Results: 20.31% of the pregnant females were found to be suffering from thyroid dysfunction which is approximately 1/5th of the total sample. Out the total females with thyroid dysfunction maximum females suffered from subclinical hypothyroidism that is 10.94% while 1.56% had overt hypothyroidism. 1.88% and 5.94% had subclinical and overt hyperthyroidism respectively. Postpartum haemorrhage, pre term delivery, abortion and neonatal deaths were more common in females with thyroid dysfunction as compared to euthyroid females although not statistically significant.Conclusions: Though pregnancy outcome was not found to be significantly adverse among females with thyroid dysfunction, very high prevalence of thyroid dysfunction among pregnant warrants its detection during antenatal care to be uniformly included in peripheral health care centres.