The Prevalence of Hypothyroidism in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Saudi Community based Hospital a Retrospective Single Centre Study by Khalid S Aljabri in Archives of Diabetes & Obesity in Lupine Publishers
Background and Objective
The association between diabetes and thyroid dysfunction were studied. To estimate retrospectively the frequency of
hypothyroidism in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) in Saudi community-based hospital.
Design
We analyzed retrospectively 3760 participants whom are between the
age 20 to 98 years. All patients were from the population
of the Primary health centre at King Fahad Armed Forces Hospital,
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. All data were collected on the basis of a
review of electronic medical data. Patients with TSH above the normal
range of TSH for our laboratory reference (4.2 MIU/L, history
of hypothyroidism and taking thyroid replacement therapy were included.
Patient who are pregnant were excluded.
Results
Out of the initial screening of 6023 subjects, 3760 subjects were
included. There were 861 (22.9%) male and 2899 (77.1%)
were female with mean age 44.9±15.8. The mean TSH value was 4.3±8.1.
Among them we found 1521 (40.7%) and 1086 (28.9%)
cases with T2DM and hypothyroidism respectively. Among cases of T2DM,
there were 467 (30.7%) with hypothyroidism. There
were 86 (18.4%) cases were male and 381 (81.6%) were female with male to
female ratio of 1 to 4.4, p< 0.0001. Cases with
hypothyroidism were non significantly older than cases with no
hypothyroidism, 55.2±12.6 vs. 54.9±13.2 respectively, p=0.6. Cases
with hypothyroidism were non significantly showed no differences in HbA1c
than cases with no hypothyroidism, 7.9±2.3 vs. 8.1±2.1
respectively, p=0.2. Hypothyroidism was more prevalent in the sixth
decade (32%), figure 1. Hypothyroidism was significantly more
prevalent in females between the third to the seventh decades as
compared to males. Male was no significantly more prevalent than
females in the eighth and ninth decades.
Conclusion
We conclude that despite the limitations of this hospital-based
retrospective study, hypothyroidism is highly prevalent in
cohort of Saudis with T2DM. The majority of our patients with primary hypothyroidism were predominantly females. These two
observations remain to be validated by population-based studies. In the
absence of registry data, larger cooperative studies involving
diverse population samples from multiple centers could help to provide
further information on the true frequency nationally. Based
on a high prevalence of hypothyroidism among Saudi T2DM patients,
routine screening for hypothyroidism is highly recommended
in Saudi diabetic population.
For more Lupine Publishers Open access journals please visit our website
For more Diabetes Research Impact Factor please click here
