Spectrum and prevalence of thyroid diseases seen at a tertiary health facility in Sagamu, South-West Nigeria.
The prevalence of goitrous swelling has reduced in Nigeria since the introduction of salt iodisation programme. Thyroid disorders are the second most common endocrine disorder after diabetes mellitus worldwide. They present to general outpatient, medical and surgical clinics accompanied by great anxiety and poor health-related quality of life.



The study aimed to determine and describe the spectrum of thyroid disorders seen at Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital over a 10-year period.



This was a retrospective analysis of records of patients who presented to the hospital with thyroid swellings over a 10-year period (June 2004 to June 2014). Clinicopathological and demographic data obtained from hospital records in 175 patients diagnosed by clinical examination, thyroid ultrasound, hormone profile and histological confirmation in cases that had surgery were analysed for this study.



The records of 175 patients were obtained comprising 151 (86.3%) females and 24 (13.7%) males (female to male ratio of 6.3:1) with age range from 18 to 76 years and mean age of 42.3 years, standard deviation 13.5. With clinical diagnosis, distribution of thyroid diseases was simple goitre 103 (58.9%), toxic goitre 64 (36.6%), hypothyroidism 3 (1.7%), malignant goitre 4 (2.3%) and thyroiditis 1 (0.6%). The age group of 30-49 years had the highest prevalence of the thyroid diseases 100 (57.2%) while the extremes of age, below 20 and over 70 years had the least (5.1 and 2.9%, respectively).



The prevalent form of thyroid diseases seen at Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital was simple goitre and most common in females. Studies on autoimmunity and other goitrogens are required to further elucidate the cause of this high prevalence.
Department of Surgery, Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, Nigeria.
Babatunde Abayomi
BA
Salami
Department of Medicine, Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, Nigeria.
Olatunde
O
Odusan
Department of Morbid Anatomy & Histopathology, Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, Nigeria.
Henry Okuchukwu
HO
Ebili
Department of Morbid Anatomy & Histopathology, Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, Nigeria.
Patrick Akintunde
PA
Akintola
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009549:Nigeria / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D011788:Quality of Life; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013959:Thyroid Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*