A Hybrid Approach for Thyroid Disease and Classification Using Attribute Associations Rule Mining

Abstract

In recent years, thyroid diseases have become increasingly prevalent worldwide. In India, for instance, one in eight women is affected by hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, or thyroid cancer. Research indicates that approximately 20% of Indians are diagnosed with endemic goiter. Several factors influence thyroid function, including stress, infection, trauma, toxins, low-calorie diet, and certain medications. Preventing such diseases is crucial as treatments often involve long-term medication or surgical intervention. Thyroid disease diagnosis is pivotal in medicine, where precise classification is essential for prompt treatment. This paper proposes a novel approach to thyroid disease classification by integrating Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) with Association Rule Mining (ARM). The hybridization of PSO and ACO enhances exploration and exploitation capabilities, thereby improving the efficiency of association rule mining for feature selection. The proposed method aims to identify significant association rules among thyroid disease attributes, thereby facilitating accurate classification. Experimental evaluations conducted on benchmark thyroid disease datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in terms of classification accuracy and computational efficiency. The results indicate that the hybrid PSO and ACO-based association rule mining approach surpasses traditional methods, underscoring its potential to enhance thyroid disease diagnosis systems.