• P N G Med J · Mar 1992

    Comparative Study

    Thyroid function in a formerly goitrous community on Karkar Island, Papua New Guinea.

    • H King, C Finch, L F King, G Senator, E Tscharke, and M P Alpers.
    • Division of Noncommunicable Diseases and Health Technology, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
    • P N G Med J. 1992 Mar 1; 35 (1): 26-32.

    AbstractDuring a survey of noncommunicable disease conducted on Karkar Island, Madang Province in 1986, measures of thyroid function were examined in adult residents of a formerly goitrous village (Gamog) and a neighbouring community (Marup) with no history of iodine deficiency or endemic goitre. In Gamog, almost 20% of males and almost 30% of females had palpable goitre (maximum prevalence at ages 35-54 years) but visible goitres were not encountered. However, thyroid function tests were generally similar in the two groups, suggesting that iodine deficiency is no longer an appreciable problem for adults in Gamog. The persistence of palpable goitre in this village is therefore likely to be a residual effect of previous iodine deficiency. Correction of the iodine deficiency in the Gamog community began with the program of iodized oil injections, which was undertaken in the 1970s. The current lack of iodine deficiency is probably due in the main to dietary change associated with the introduction of the cash economy. This effect may have occurred in many formerly goitrous communities in Papua New Guinea in recent years, although persistence of iodine deficiency in some parts of the country should not be discounted.

      Pubmed     Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…

What will the 'Medical Journal of You' look like?

Start your free 21 day trial now.

We guarantee your privacy. Your email address will not be shared.