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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE The original Whlckham Survey documented the prevalence of thyroid disorders in a randomly selected sample of 2779 adults which matched the population of Great Britain in age, sex and social class. The aim of the twenty‐year follow‐up survey was to determine the Incidence and natural history of thyroid disease in this cohort.

DESIGN, PATIENTS AND MEASUREMENTS Subjects were traced at follow‐up via the Electoral Register, General Practice registers, Gateshead Family Health Services Authority register and Office of Population Censuses and Surveys. Eight hundred and twenty‐five subjects (30% of the sample) had died and, In addition to death certificates, two‐thirds had Information from either hospital/General Practitioner notes or post‐mortem reports to document morbidity prior to death. Of the 1877 known survivors, 96% participated in the follow‐up study and 91 …