Department of Internal Medicine, Federal Medical Center, PMB 7001, Umuahia, Nigeria.Tel: +2348060692131; E-mail:
West Afr J Med. 2024 Feb 29;41(2):118-125.
Studies from different parts of the world on thyroid dysfunction have shown it to be widespread in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM); however, there is insufficient local data to support this observation.
To determine the burden of thyroid dysfunction among patients with T2DM at a Tertiary Hospital in Southeast Nigeria with emphasis on its prevalence and pattern of presentation.
Four hundred and seventy-two subjects were recruited for the study. All the subjects (100%) were of African descent. Three hundred and fifty-four (354) of them were patients with T2DM, while 118 subjects who did not have T2DM served as the controls. This study is a descriptive cross-sectional study involving patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus attending the Diabetes Clinic or receiving treatment in the Medical Wards. Subjects were recruited using systematic sampling. The first patient was selected by simple random sampling, and subsequently, every consecutive subject was selected. Blood samples were tested for HbA1c, fT3, fT4, thyrotropin, and thyroid stimulating hormone. Socio-demographic information was retrieved from patient medical records. We used the Student's t-test for statistical comparison of quantitative variables such as weight, height, blood pressure, serum TSH, and serum T3; while for comparison of proportions, we used a Chi-squared test. We set a p-value of less than 0.05 to be statistically significant.
Females formed the majority of the study population accounting for 56.5% of the type 2 DM patients and 62.7% of the controls. We observed that the mean age of the type 2 DM patients was 57.5 (±9.3) years, which was similar to the mean age of controls: 57.7±8.9 (p=0.17). We also observed that the mean age at diagnosis of DM was 54±7.6 years, while the mean duration of DM for all the type 2 DM patients was 6.5±2.8 years. We observed that in patients with T2DM, the prevalence of thyroid dysfunction was 12.4% and among the controls, a prevalence of 1.7% was observed (P <0.05). Females formed the majority (75%) of T2DM patients with thyroid dysfunction and hypothyroidism was the most common type of thyroid dysfunction (93.2%) observed in this study.
The prevalence of thyroid dysfunction in T2DM patients in this study was 12.4% which was high compared to 1.7% observed in the controls (P = 0.001). The majority of those who had thyroid dysfunction were females. About 9 in 10 of all subjects with thyroid dysfunction had hypothyroidism.
来自世界不同地区的关于甲状腺功能障碍的研究表明,它在 2 型糖尿病(T2DM)患者中广泛存在;然而,本地数据不足以支持这一观察结果。
在尼日利亚东南部的一家三级医院确定 T2DM 患者中甲状腺功能障碍的负担,重点是其患病率和表现模式。
本研究共招募了 472 名受试者。所有受试者(100%)均为非洲裔。其中 354 名为 2 型糖尿病患者,而 118 名未患 2 型糖尿病的患者作为对照组。这是一项描述性的横断面研究,涉及在糖尿病诊所就诊或在病房接受治疗的 2 型糖尿病患者。受试者采用系统抽样招募。第一位患者通过简单随机抽样选择,随后连续选择每一位患者。检测 HbA1c、游离三碘甲状腺原氨酸(fT3)、游离甲状腺素(fT4)、促甲状腺激素和甲状腺刺激激素。从患者病历中检索社会人口统计学信息。我们使用学生 t 检验比较定量变量,如体重、身高、血压、血清 TSH 和血清 T3;而对于比例比较,我们使用卡方检验。我们将 P 值设置为小于 0.05 作为统计学意义。
女性构成了研究人群的大多数,占 2 型糖尿病患者的 56.5%和对照组的 62.7%。我们观察到,2 型糖尿病患者的平均年龄为 57.5(±9.3)岁,与对照组的平均年龄相似:57.7±8.9(p=0.17)。我们还观察到,糖尿病的平均诊断年龄为 54±7.6 岁,而所有 2 型糖尿病患者的糖尿病平均病程为 6.5±2.8 年。我们观察到,在 2 型糖尿病患者中,甲状腺功能障碍的患病率为 12.4%,而在对照组中,观察到 1.7%的患病率(P<0.05)。女性构成了大多数(75%)患有甲状腺功能障碍的 2 型糖尿病患者,并且在这项研究中,甲状腺功能障碍最常见的类型是甲状腺功能减退症(93.2%)。
与对照组(P=0.001)观察到的 1.7%相比,本研究中 2 型糖尿病患者甲状腺功能障碍的患病率为 12.4%,较高。患有甲状腺功能障碍的大多数人是女性。所有患有甲状腺功能障碍的患者中,约有 9 人患有甲状腺功能减退症。