The thyroid gland is the most crucial factor in regulation of body metabolism, neurological development and growth in children. Any abnormality that results in change of thyroid secretion causes thyroid disorders. These changes could be either functional or structural. Congenital and acquired thyroid dysfunctions are among the most frequent pediatric endocrine disorders, yet their recognition remains insufficient in low-resource settings. Pakistan’s twin cities lack pediatric thyroid epidemiology data. Our study aimed to addresses following objectives by finding frequency of thyroid disorders among 1-12 years of pediatrics population, identifying categories of thyroid disorders in prospective patients and evaluating influence of nutritional risk factors encountered in thyroid dysfunction patient. A total 215 OPD patients visiting the hospitals over a period of eight months (August 2022 to March 2023) were screened. Children between ages of 1-12 years who visited the children OPD of different medical centers in twin cities were counted in if they had clinical impression of thyroid disorders. All of the 215 children were examined for thyroid profile comprising of Triiodothyronine (T3) serum level, Thyroxin (T4) level and Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) serum levels. For the purpose of statistical determination and analysis, SPSS software version 25 was used to estimate prevalence rate of thyroid dysfunctions. Overall, our study our found that subclinical and overt hypothyroidism were more prevalent (11.2%) thyroid dysfunction as compare to other types in the children Prevalence of thyroid dysfunction was indicated greater in school-aged children and females. Nutritional disorderness caused due to deficiency of essential micronutrients (iodine, selenium, iron) as well as a diet high in goitrogen could be a considerable contributing factor in initiation of thyroid dysfunction. Often clinical demonstrations are non-specific (e.g., short stature, constipation), indicating the need of proper diagnostic test instead of relying on usual signs like goiter.

Index Terms- Endocrine, Goitrogen, Micronutrients, Pediatric, Thyroid disorder, Thyroxin, Triiodothyronine