Prevalence, risk factors, and consequences of hypothyroidism among pregnant women in the health region of Lleida: A cohort study

BACKGROUND: Primary maternal hypothyroidism is defined as the increase of TSH levels in serum during pregnancy. Hypothyroidism in pregnancy is the second most common endocrine disease, after diabetes mellitus, with a prevalence ranging between 3.2 and 5.5%. Its variability depends on ethnical differences. Hypothyroidism in pregnancy is associated with other chronic diseases and fetal and maternal outcomes. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the prevalence of hypothyroidism among multiethnic pregnant women, and to evaluate the comorbidity with chronic diseases and outcomes leaded during pregnancy and newborn. METHODS: Retrospective observational cohort study in pregnant women during the years 2012–2018 in the health region of Lleida. The relationship of hypothyroidism with different variables was analyzed by calculating the adjusted odds ratio (aOR) and the 95% confidence intervals (CI) with multivariate logistic regression models. RESULTS: We analyzed a sample of 17177 pregnant women, which represents more than 92% of the total of pregnant women in the health region of Lleida. The annual prevalence of hypothyroidism was 5.7–7.1%. According to the region of origin, the lowest prevalence was found in the population from Sub Saharian Africa (2.1%), while the highest was from Asia and the Middle East (8.6%). Other factors associated with hypothyroidism were age, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and dyslipidemia. In addition, we did not observe an effect of hypothyroidism on the course of pregnancy, childbirth, and on the newborn. Finally, there was a good control of the disease during pregnancy. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of hypothyroidism in pregnancy was 6,5% in this study which depends on the country of origin, lower values were found in Sub Saharian African women and higher in those from Asia and the Middle East. Hypothyroidism was associated with age, diabetes mellitus, arterial hypertension, or dyslipidemia, and was not related to the Apgar score or the weight of the newborn.