Higher risk for thyroid diseases in physicians than in the general population: a Taiwan nationwide population-based
T-Y Chen1,2, C-C Hsu3,4, I-J Feng5
1From the Section of Neuroradiology, Department of Medical Imaging, Chi-Mei Medical Center, Tainan 710, Taiwan.
Background:
Physicians have high work stress, responsibility for night shifts and chances of exposure to medical radiation, which may increase the risk for thyroid diseases.
Aim:
We conducted this study to assess the risk for thyroid diseases in physicians, which remain unclear.
Design:
We used a secondary analysis of the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database for this study.
Methods:
After excluding thyroid diseases occurring before 2006 and residents, physicians and general population were identified by matching with age and sex in 2009 in a 1:2 ratio. The risk for thyroid diseases was compared between the physicians and general population and among physicians by tracing their medical histories between 2006 and 2012.
Results:
In total, 28,649 physicians and 57,298 general population were identified. Physicians had a higher risk for overall thyroid diseases than the general population [odds ratio (OR): 1.27; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.10-1.47], including individual thyroid disease: thyroid cancer (OR: 1.89; 95% CI: 1.22-2.95), hypothyroidism (OR: 1.64; 95% CI: 1.23-2.18) and thyroiditis (OR: 1.48; 95% CI: 1.00-2.19).
Conclusions:
We showed that physicians had a significantly higher risk for thyroid diseases than the general population. This reminds us to pay more attention to thyroid diseases in physicians. Further studies about the underlying mechanisms are warranted.
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