Awareness of thyroid gland disease and its relation to cardiac disease in provinces of Riyadh

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to find out the thyroid profile and awareness among the patients about thyroid diseases and cardiac diseases with their correlations. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted over the 3 months in Riyadh province, Saudi Arabia. Participants from both genders aged 18 to 70 years were included. By taking the confidence interval of 95% with a 5% chance of error, 400 sample sizes were concluded over the population of 1 million in Riyadh province. A questionnaire was designed using Google form (online) with demographic details and study survey questions. Results: Out of 400 participants, 58.2% were number of females aged 18-25 years of age (78.2%), which might be the reason for increased usage of social media platforms. Most participants belonged to the Saudi Arabia (94.5%) and had a bachelor's degree (67.3%). In the study population, 94.5% participants had chronic diseases, however they were not diagnosed with thyroid disease previously (94.5%). Around 5.5% were diagnosed with thyroid disease previously, however, not aware of the type of thyroid disease they had. Among the participants, 49.1% did not know that thyroid gland disease is associated with cardiac disease. Majority of the participants (60%) had no knowledge about the risk factors associated with thyroid gland disease. Conclusion: The findings from the current study suggested that age, specifically aged 18-25 years was associated with a higher level of knowledge about thyroid disorders. Given the high prevalence of thyroid disorders in the population of Saudi Arabia (KSA), this study aimed to increase awareness among the younger generations about common health problems in the Saudi community and ways to prevent them.