Abstract
Diabetes and thyroid dysfunction found to exist simultaneously. In this regard, the present study looked into the prevalence of different forms of thyroid dysfunction and their risk factors among Type 2 diabetic Saudi patients. Methodology. A cross-sectional retrospective randomized hospital-based study of 411 Type 2 diabetic Saudi patients of >25 years of age was conducted to test the prevalence of different types of thyroid dysfunction and their risk factors. Results. The prevalence of different types of thyroid dysfunction is 28.5%, of which 25.3% had hypothyroidism, where 15.3%, 9.5%, and 0.5% are clinical, subclinical, and overt hypothyroidism, respectively. The prevalence of hyperthyroidism is 3.2%, of which subclinical cases accounted for 2.7% and overt hyperthyroidism accounted for 0.5%. Risk factors for thyroid dysfunction among Saudi Type 2 diabetic patients are family history of thyroid disease, female gender, and duration of diabetes of >10 years, while the risk was not significant in patients with history of goiter and patients aged >60 years. Smoking and parity show a nonsignificant reduced risk. Conclusion. Thyroid dysfunction is highly prevalent among Saudi Type 2 diabetic patients, and the most significant risk factors are family history of thyroid disease, female gender, and >10 years duration of diabetes.
Highlights
Diabetes mellitus and thyroid dysfunction are the most common endocrine diseases seen in the adult population [1], while insulin or thyroid hormones metabolism can result in functional abnormalities of one another
Since most studies investigating the prevalence of thyroid disease in diabetic patients have focused on Type 1 diabetes, the aim of this study is to assess the prevalence of different forms of thyroid dysfunction among Type 2 diabetic Saudi patients receiving care from April to October in 2012 at the University Diabetes Center (UDC) in King Abdul Aziz University Hospital (KAUH) in Riyadh
The percentage of patients with a positive family history of thyroid disease was significantly higher in patients with thyroid dysfunction (14.7%) versus (1.03%) among the normal thyroid diabetic patients with P value < 0.0001, while the percentage of family history of diabetes was not statistically different between the two groups
Summary
Diabetes mellitus and thyroid dysfunction are the most common endocrine diseases seen in the adult population [1], while insulin or thyroid hormones metabolism can result in functional abnormalities of one another. Thyroid disease should be screened annually in diabetic patients to detect asymptomatic thyroid dysfunction [3]. Patients with thyroid dysfunction may need to be tested for the possibility of abnormal glucose metabolism, since excessive thyroid hormones cause increased glucose production in the liver, rapid absorption of glucose through the intestine, and increased insulin resistance [4]. Diabetic patients have susceptibility to different types of thyroid dysfunction, whether hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism; at the same time, patients with thyroid dysfunction are susceptible to suffer from either Type 1 diabetes or Type 2 diabetes [1, 9]
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