A cross-sectional study of lipid profile among school-going children with subclinical hypothyroidism in rural Telangana

Background: Subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) is defined as serum thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) concentration above the statistically defined upper limit of the reference range and serum-free thyroxine (fT4) concentration within its reference range. The correlation of higher levels of TSH and dyslipidaemia in children is controversial. This study was done among school children to document the prevalence of SCH and to investigate the association between the lipid profile and TSH in children with SCH. Methods: A cross-sectional study among 982 school-going children (6-12 years) was conducted and 91 children with SCH were included. Their weight, height, body mass index (BMI), fasting lipid profile (serum total cholesterol [TC], triglycerides [TG] and high-density lipoprotein [HDL]) were converted to z scores and compared with the reference population data. Results: The prevalence of SCH was 11%. Mean TC, TG and HDL levels (mg/dL) were 169 ± 8.8, 66.4 ± 7.7 and 40.5 ± 4.1, respectively. The mean HDL value in the study population was significantly lower, whereas the mean TC levels were significantly higher than the population mean. There was no correlation between TC z scores and TSH (ρ = 0.071) and HDL z scores and TSH (ρ = −0.01371). Multiple linear regression showed a statistically significant association between TSH and HDL z scores (P = 0.006) and TSH and TC z scores (P = 0.008) after adjusting for age and BMI z scores. Conclusions: Children with SCH have an abnormal lipid profile. There is association between TSH and dyslipidaemia (decreased HDL and increased TC) in SCH.