Jamshid Farahati, Elana G ilman, James Nagarajah, Zohre Mousavi, Rema Markous, Kevan Farahati, Rasoul S Zakavi and Rainer Görges
Background: An association between smoking and the risk of goitre is reported in some, but not all studies. We investigated the association between smoking, goitre and iodine intake, with respect to different risk factors in 483 healthy men in Germany.
Methods: A total of 483 healthy male employees of 4 institutions in Essen in Western part of Germany, aged between 17 and 68 years (43.1 ± 9.6 y) were examined by ultrasound of the neck to determine the thyroid volume between April 2001 and April 2002. Information on age, BMI, smoking, daily use of iodized salt, and familial history of thyroid disorders were assessed by standardized questionnaires. Logistic regression analysis was performed to adjust for smoking, age, iodine status and familial history of goitre.
Results: The overall prevalence of goitre was 25.7%. Median thyroid volume among smokers, (23.4 ± 10.1 ml), was higher (p<0.001) as compared with non-smokers (19.4 ± 7.8 ml). Goitre was present in 77 out of 204 smokers (37.7%) vs. 47/279 (16.8%) in non-smokers (odds ratio: 3.0; p<0.001).
Smoking (p<0.001) and increasing age (p<0.001) was associated with goitre prevalence, but not BMI and the family history of goitre. Iodine status alone failed just to reach the significance level but revealed a clear trend. And there was significant prevalence of goitre in smoking men who did not take iodine salt compared to smoking men with regular intake of iodine salt (p=0.018).
Conclusions: Smoking increase the risk of goitre in men that can be decreased by taking iodine.
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