Demographic background characteristics of the study population, n=48
| Study group | Total (n=48) | Cases (n=24) | Controls (n=24) | Comparison* | |||||||
| Characteristic | Mean/ number | SD | Range (min, max) | Mean/ number | SD | Range (min, max) | Mean/ number | SD | Range (min, max) | P value | 95% CI of difference |
| Age (years) | 38 | 11 | 19, 60 | 38 | 11 | 19, 60 | 38 | 11 | 21, 57 | 0.930† | −6.92, 6.33 |
| No. of children | 4 | 4 | 0, 13 | 5 | 4 | 0, 13 | 3 | 3 | 0, 10 | 0.069‡ | |
| No. people in hh | 6 | 3 | 2, 20 | 7 | 4 | 2, 20 | 6 | 2 | 2, 10 | 0.992‡ | |
| Weight (kg) | 63.8 | 14.8 | 37.5, 87.9 | 64.1 | 14.3 | 42.5, 87.9 | 63.5 | 15.6 | 37.5, 87.1 | 0.888† | −8.07, 9.29 |
| Height (cm) | 158.2 | 7.1 | 138.1, 176.9 | 159.5 | 6.1 | 148.6, 172.0 | 156.9 | 7.9 | 138.1, 176.9 | 0.205† | −1.48, 6.71 |
| BMI (kg/m2) | 25.1 | 5.7 | 15.6, 37.6 | 24.9 | 5.7 | 15.6, 33.7 | 25.3 | 5.9 | 17.9, 37.6 | 0.791† | −3.82, 2.92 |
| Characteristic | N (%) | N (%) | N (%) | ||||||||
| BMI cat. (kg/m2) | |||||||||||
| <18.5 | 8 (17) | 4 (17) | 4 (17) | 0.981§ | |||||||
| 18.5–24.9 | 16 (33) | 8 (33) | 8 (33) | ||||||||
| 25.0–29.9 | 15 (31) | 7 (29) | 8 (33) | ||||||||
| >30.0 | 9 (19) | 5 (21) | 4 (17) | ||||||||
| Education | |||||||||||
| None | 3 (6) | 2 (8) | 1 (4) | 0.246§ | |||||||
| Primary | 9 (19) | 6 (25) | 3 (13) | ||||||||
| Secondary | 27 (56) | 14 (58) | 13 (54) | ||||||||
| Higher | 9 (19) | 2 (8) | 7 (29) | ||||||||
| Employed | 6 (13) | 1 (4) | 5 (21) | 0.081§ | |||||||
| Marital status | |||||||||||
| Single | 7 (15) | 2 (8) | 5 (21) | 0.199§ | |||||||
| Married | 35 (73) | 18 (75) | 17 (71) | ||||||||
| Divorced | 3 (6) | 3 (13) | – | ||||||||
| Widowed | 3 (6) | 1 (4) | 2 (8) | ||||||||
| Residence area | |||||||||||
| Town | 31 (65) | 10 (42) | 21 (88) | 0.003§ | |||||||
| Village | 5 (10) | 5 (21) | – | ||||||||
| Countryside | 12 (25) | 9 (37) | 3 (12) | ||||||||
Data are presented as means with SD and range (min and max) for continuous variables and as the number of patients and percentage of the population for categorical variables.
*Comparison between cases (goitre group) and controls (non-goitre group).
†Independent samples t-test for equality of means, significant if p<0.05.
‡Mann Whitney U-test, significant if p<0.05.
§Pearson χ² test, significant if p<0.05.
BMI, body mass index; cat., category; hh, household; max, maximum; min, minimum; no., number.