In 1975, the original Whickham Survey was published in the U.K. The survey showed prevalence of thyroid problems among a randomly selected sample of 2779 adults who were representative of Great Britain’s population, in terms of age, gender and social class.

Twenty years later, a followup was conducted, and the results were analyzed, in order to look at the levels of thyroid disease, and the history of the disease in the people who were being studied. Among those studied in the 1975 study, 96% of the 1877 people still alive were part of the follow-up, and 91% underwent thyroid tests. Among the study population, it was found that:

• The likelihood of developing hypothyroidism increased as the study subjects aged
• There was not relationship to age in the likelihood of developing hyperthyroidism
• The frequency of goiter decreased with age, and 10% of women and 2% of men had a goiter at follow-up, compared to 23% and 5% in the fist survey
• In women, an association was found between the development of a goiter and positive thyroid antibody status at follow-up
• Both women and men who had a raised TSH level in 1975 were at far greater risk of having developed hypothyroidism at follow-up
• Both women and men who had positive antithyroid antibodies alone in 1975 were at far greater risk of having developed hypothyroidism at follow-up
• Both women and men who had both raised TSH and positive antithyroid antibodies in 1975 were at far greater risk of having developed hypothyroidism at follow-up
• Values of TSH above 2mU/l at in 1975 increased the probability of developing hypothyroidism, and that was even more likely in the presence of antithyroid antibodies.