Factors affecting to neonatal thyroid hormone deficiency in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic, Akat Amnuai district, Sakon Nakhon Province

Abstract

Background: In the spread of COVID-19 Less exposure to iodine affects the health of the pregnant woman and fetus, causing miscarriages and premature births. low birth weight, anemia and hypothyroidism in newborns. Changes in levels of thyroid-stimulating hormone besides genetics, and many environmental factors can also affect thyroid function. This research aims to study the impact of environmental factors on thyroid-stimulating hormone in newborns. Methods: The sample consisted of 134 postpartum women randomly selected by simple method from 807 postpartum women in 2020-2022. The data were collected between June-July 2022 by interviewing social, environment, and household economy. Lifestyle, Iodine salt intake, drugs, iodine supplements and quality antenatal care correlation with Thyroid-stimulating hormone were determined by multiple logistic regression, adjusted odd ratio (ORadj), and 95%Confidence Interval (95% CI) were presented. Results: The results revealed that 67.7% were pregnant aged 20-34 years, 50.7% took iodized salt before pregnancy, 67.2% consumed during pregnancy, 45.5% received salt during antenatal care, 30.6% took folate(B9) before pregnancy,53.0%took antenatal care qualitatively and took iodine supplementation (57.5% daily intake, 29.9% intake 4-6 days/week, 11.9% intake 2-3 days/week). Most of them consume high iodine foods not variety and not frequent enough. High iodine supplements/diet intake, household income, COVID-19 infection, and antenatal care qualitatively were not significant. The significant correlation factor was not eating iodized salt, low education level and residing in the sub-district administrative organization. The results of the correlation analysis using Backward elimination showed that positively correlated with pregnant women whose husbands drink alcohol were hypothyroidism 0.3 times (95%CI=0.10-0.66), husbands smoking 0.4 times (95% CI=0.20-0.94, and pre-pregnancy malnutrition were 2.6 times (95%CI=1.17-5.74). Conclusions: The findings iodine affects to health of pregnant women and fetuses, Therefore, a more rigorous monitoring system for Iodized salt should be designed to encourage a higher rate of pregnant women to take iodine supplementation daily.