Comparative Study on Body Mass Index between Hypothyroidism Patients and Healthy Volunteers

ABSTRACT

Background: Hypothyroidism is known to interfere with the metabolism of all the cells in the body, particularly fat metabolism inadipose tissue. This, in turn, leads to obesity. Body mass index (BMI) is widely used to assess obesity and metabolic syndrome.Obesity leads to a higher incidence of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.Materials and Methods: Twenty-five hypothyroid subjects were enrolled (study group) from the Department of Endocrinologyand Metabolism, Govt. Rajaji Hospital attached to the Madurai Medical College, Madurai. Twenty-five normal subjects whowere age- and sex-matched with the study group were enrolled to form the control group. Serum levels of thyroid-stimulatinghormone (TSH), total circulating T4, and total circulating T3 were measured by radioimmunoassay to confirm hypothyroidism.Height and weight were measured using a stadiometer and weighing scale, BMI was calculated using Quetelet’s index formula.Results and Conclusion: The results were tabulated and analyzed by applying unpaired t-test and SPSS software version16.0. BMI values of the study group and control group were compared, but there was no statistical significance. BMI valueswhen compared with serum TSH levels within the same group, the Pearson correlation coefficient also showed no statisticalsignificance.