Increased incidence of congenital hypothyroidism in Gypsies in east Slovakia as compared with white population.

Ethnic Gypsies represent 9 percent of total population of East Slovakia. However, during first three and half years of compulsory screening of congenital hypothyroidism (CH) there were 15,346 Gypsy newborns which was 16.8 percent of a total number of 90,760 newborns. Out of these Gypsy newborns 7 cases of CH were found (i.e. 1:2192), while 12 cases of CH were observed among 75,414 white newborns (i.e. 1:6284), which was significantly less than that in newborns Gypsies (P less than 0.05). Since the far highest coefficient of inbreeding ever reported for any European population or ethnic groups has been found by others in newborns Gypsies living in Slovakia (Fg = 0.017 obtained by genealogic method and Fi = 0.084 obtained by the method of isonymy), it may be suggested that a high incidence of CH in newborns Gypsies may be due to some genetic and hereditary factors. Though a direct interrelationship cannot be definitely established from the present data and still remains far from to be elucidated, the present observation may be considered as a contribution to the study of this problem.