Abstract

Introduction: Diseases of the thyroid gland are common in adults and the prevalence is increasing in all parts of the world. Ethnicity and geographical locations also affect the prevalence of thyroid disorders along with the age, sex and iodine-intake by the different populations. The objective of our study is to examine the prevalence of thyroid dysfunction in female Saudi adults. It is a quantitative, observational, cross-sectional study involving 199 female Saudi adults visiting the King Khalid University Hospitals, Riyadh. Recruitment of subjects was done by random sampling.

Materials and methods: Informed consent was taken from the participants followed by an interviewing questionnaire to get information about their medical and social history. Also we measured their blood pressure, height and weight. Afterwards, venous blood was collected from each subject and processed to measure the thyroid function (free T4 and TSH) and bone profile (calcium, phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase and vitamin D). Duration of the study was six months, we excluded endocrine clinic to avoid any bias in the selection of our population.

Results: The mean age of the total 199 females participating in the study was 29 (± 12.2) yrs. More than 50% of women were either overweight or obese with a BMI of more than 25. Amongst the participants, 17% of the females informed us through the questionnaire that they had been previously diagnosed with thyroid diseases, with 10% as hypothyroid and 3% with hyperthyroidism. The remaining 4% had other thyroid diseases. The mean age of these previously diagnosed cases of hypo-and hyperthyroidism were significantly more than the remaining subjects. From these remaining subjects we found 5.5% of women with undiagnosed hypothyroidism. So, the incidence rate of hypothyroidism in female Saudi adults visiting the KKUH was 15.5%. In our studied population, we did not find any new cases with hyperthyroidism.

Conclusion: There is a high incidence of thyroid disorders in the female Saudi adult population. Most common is subclinical hypothyroidism and it mainly affects older females.

Keywords: Prevalence; Blood pressure; Thyroid diseases; Hyperthyroidism; Thyroid diseases; Incidence; Saudi females