Hypothyroidism among females and differences in their dietary patterns and urinary iodine concentrations compared to normal subjects

Abstract

Thyroid disorders are among the most common endocrine disorders in India. Hypothyroidism is a very common condition. The condition is more common in women than in men, and its incidence increases with age. For the present study 150 females of 21 to 50 years of age were selected via random sampling from Pantnagar area of Udham Singh Nagar District, Uttarakhand and were interviewed using a predesigned proforma. The subjects mainly belonged to middle and upper income groups. Among 150 subjects, 30 were found to be suffering from hypothyroidism of which six were the newly diagnosed cases who had not started medications. Subjects were assessed for their dietary intakes and differences in the food habits based on food avoidance, food preferences, dietary habits and dietary diversity scores. Based on the analysis of the dietary intakes of normal (n=120) and hypothyroid (n=30) subjects not much difference was found, as was also evident from the dietary diversity scores (where non-significant difference was observed) except for in case of some dietary habits which showed significant differences. The mean dietary diversity scores of hypothyroid and normal subjects were 5.8±0.88 and 6.0±0.90 respectively. Urine samples were also collected for the measurement of urinary iodine concentration of only 30 subjects which included six of the newly detected hypothyroid cases not on medication and the remaining 24 normal subjects. Only 2 hypothyroid subjects and 3 normal subjects were found to be suffering from mild iodine deficiency with values of urinary iodine ranging from 76.5 to 94.6µg/l. Median urine iodine excretion in the present study was 172 µg/l (mean 186.5±58.4 µg/l) indicating iodine sufficiency.