Table 1.

Sociodemographic characteristics and health care access of NHANES participants with hypothyroidism, stratified by treatment status and degree of hypothyroidism

	Treated Hypothyroidism	Untreated Subclinical Hypothyroidism		Untreated Clinical Hypothyroidism
Variables	(n = 536)	(n = 115)	P-value	(n = 47)	P-value
Reports thyroid disease	(%)	(%)	<0.0001	(%)	<0.0001
No	0.0	85.1		70.0
Yes	100.0	14.9		30.0
Gender			<0.0001		0.46
Men	18.1	45.4		25.6
Women	81.9	54.6		74.4
Age, years			<0.0001		<0.0001
20–44	6.7	29.0		45.6
45–69	60.9	53.4		39.7
70 and over	32.4	17.7		14.7
Race/ethnicity			0.084		0.36
Non-Hispanic white	87.9	84.3		86.3
Hispanic	5.2	10.0		10.1
Non-Hispanic black	2.9	1.3		3.5
Other	4.0	4.5		0.0
Education			0.70		0.051
Did not complete HS	12.2	16.0		17.5
Completed HS	54.8	51.9		58.4
Completed college	33.0	32.2		21.6
Don’t know	0.0	0.0		2.4
Household income ($)			0.60		0.20
0–45 000	37.5	32.1		46.2
45 000–10 0000	28.8	32.0		43.5
Above 100 000	26.2	23.7		7.6
Don’t know	7.5	12.2		2.7
Access to routine care			0.25		<0.0001
No	0.9	9.2		22.8
Yes	99.1	90.8		77.2

Treated hypothyroidism was defined as taking thyroid hormone and reporting a history of thyroid disease. Untreated subclinical hypothyroidism was defined as a TSH level between 5.6 and 9.9 mIU/L with an FT4 ≥0.6 ng/dL. Untreated clinical hypothyroidism was defined as a TSH level >5.6 mIU/L and an FT4 <0.6 ng/mL, or TSH level ≥ 10.0mIU/L and any FT4 level. P-values refer to the comparisons between those with treated hypothyroidism and those with untreated subclinical or clinical hypothyroidism. Abbreviations: FT4, free thyroxine; HS, high school; NHANES: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey; TSH: thyroid-stimulating hormone.