Health care of hypothyroidism during pregnancy and next postnatal neurocognitive functions: A systematized literature review

Resumen

Hypothyroidism is a metabolic disorder in which the tetraiodothyronine hormone (TS4) is insufficiently produced. In newborns, the lack of TS4 hormone impacts the central nervous system and could contribute to a low intelligence quotient and intellectual disabilities. In Puerto Rico, hypothyroidism is more prevalent among women, representing a 24.2% of the population. However, there is lack of literature on the impact of hypothyroidism during pregnancy and neurocognitive outcomes on their children in Hispanics population. Our purpose is to perform a systematized literature review (SLR) to 1) describe the current knowledge in health care of hypothyroidism during pregnancy and 2) know the subsequent neurocognitive functions on their children, to promote research in the Hispanic population. A five phase protocol was used, to identify 106 articles from peer-reviewed databases from August to October 2019. Thirty articles were identified as duplicated and 40 met the inclusion criteria for the analysis. Articles were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as measures of central tendency. This SLR described the current knowledge on maternal hypothyroidism and adverse neurocognitive and neurodevelopmental outcomes in offspring. An 80% of the articles reported that hypothyroidism affects the cognition on children born from mothers with hypothyroidism during pregnancy. However, we do not have this kind of data in Hispanic population that allow us to implement health care and psychoeducational programs for pregnant women with hypothyroidism.