Whether or not healthy adults in the community would benefit from screening
for autoimmune thyroid disease is controversial. Although the prevalence o
f unsuspected overt thyroid disease is low, a significant proportion of sub
jects tested will have evidence of mild thyroid failure or excess. This art
icle assesses whether subclinical thyroid disease is of sufficient clinical
importance to warrant screening and, once detected and confirmed, to justi
fy therapy. Population screening for autoimmune thyroid disease is assessed
against recently revised screening criteria, using data from epidemiologic
studies. Recommendations are proposed that may be applied in any iodine-re
plete community.