Is hypothyroidism in infants is associated with the climatic conditions

Background and Aim: Congenital hypothyroidism is one of the most important preventable causes of mental retardation in infants. The aim of this study is determining prevalence of hypothyroidism (transient and permanent) and the climatic conditions affecting it in Kurdistan Province using Geographic Information Systems (GIS).Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study which was conducted on 249,348 infants born in Kurdistan province during 2006-2014 in the form of the general screening program of infants for congenital hypothyroidism. Spatial analysis was used to investigate the geographic distribution of hypothyroidism. In this study, Stata version 12 was used to statistical analysis of data, and ArcGIS Ver. 9.3 was used to draw the maps.Results: This study showed that the number of cases of transient hypothyroidism in 2006 to 2014 has been much higher than the permanent type (63% versus 22.6%). Divandareh city has the highest incidence of transient (1.5) and Kamyaran city had the highest incidence of permanent (1.83). The results showed that there is not a significant correlation between the incidence of this disease in Kurdistan province and climatic variables (P˃0.05). Conclusion: Given that Divandareh and Kamyaran cities in Kurdistan province have the highest incidence of transient and permanent, the need for emphasize on more importance of screening programs in these two cities is more emphasized in order to prevent the greater incidence of this disease in these two cities with timely screening and training for the parents.

کلیدواژه ها:

Hypothyroidism ، infants ، GIS ، Iran