Endocrine Abstracts

Description: Quality of life (QoL) is impaired in patients with thyroid dysfunction but has never been evaluated in patients with euthyroid nodular goiter (ENG). The aim of this study was to evaluate QoL in patients with ENG and compare the results with a healthy control group.

Methods: Thirty patients with ENG (mean age 38.0 years, male/female=3/27) and 30 healthy, age and gender-matched euthyroid subjects without thyroid nodule (mean age 38.9 years, male/female=4/26) were included in the study. The groups were questioned and compared with regard to Beck Anxiety Scale (BAS) and Beck Depression Scale (BDS) scores. QoL is evaluated with Short Form-36 (SF-36) questionnaire.

Results: There were no significant differences with regard to age, gender, marital and education status, BAS and BDS scores between the two groups (P>0.05). Mental health and vitality scores of SF-36 were significantly lower in the patient group (P’s 0.013 and 0.036 respectively). Physical componet, mental component, physical functioning, role physical, role emotional, social functioning, bodily pain and general health scores were similar between the groups (all P’s>0.05). Physical functioning, bodily pain, vitality and physical component scores of SF-36 were negatively correlated with both BAS and BDS. No correlations were found between SF-36 scores and age, disease duration, thyroid volume and TSH.

Conclusion: QoL (especially sub-scales of mental components of SF-36) is impaired in patients with ENG even though they have no thyroid dysfunction. This impairment is related to anxiety and depression rather than disease characteristics.