IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0242795.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Epidemiology of thyroid disorders in the Lifelines Cohort Study (the Netherlands)

Author

Listed:
  • Hanneke J C M Wouters
  • Sandra N Slagter
  • Anneke C Muller Kobold
  • Melanie M van der Klauw
  • Bruce H R Wolffenbuttel

Abstract

Background: Thyroid hormone plays a pivotal role in human metabolism. In epidemiologic studies, adequate registration of thyroid disorders is warranted. We examined the prevalence of thyroid disorders, reported thyroid medication use, thyroid hormone levels, and validity of thyroid data obtained from questionnaires in the Lifelines Cohort Study. Methods: We evaluated baseline data of all 152180 subjects (aged 18–93 years) of the Lifelines Cohort Study. At baseline, participants were asked about previous thyroid surgery and current and previous thyroid hormone use. At follow-up (n = 136776, after median 43 months), incident thyroid disorders could be reported in an open, non-structured question. Data on baseline thyroid hormone measurements (TSH, FT4 and FT3) were available in a subset of 39935 participants. Results: Of the 152180 participants, mean (±SD) age was 44.6±13.1 years and 58.5% were female. Thyroid medication was used by 4790 participants (3.1%); the majority (98.2%) used levothyroxine, and 88% were females. 59.3% of levothyroxine users had normal TSH levels. The prevalence of abnormal TSH levels in those not using thyroid medication was 10.8%; 9.4% had a mildly elevated (4.01–10.0 mIU/L), 0.7% had suppressed ( 10.0 mIU/L) TSH levels. Over 98% of subjects with TSH between 4 and 10 mIU/L had normal FT4. Open text questions allowing to report previous thyroid surgery and incident thyroid disorders proved not to be reliable and severely underestimated the true incidence and prevalence of thyroid disorders. Conclusions: Undetected thyroid disorders were prevalent in the general population, whereas the prevalence of thyroid medication use was 3.1%. Less than 60% of individuals using levothyroxine had a normal TSH level. The large group of individuals with subclinical hypothyroidism (9.4%) offers an excellent possibility to prospectively follow the natural course of this disorder. Both structured questions as well as linking to G.P.’s and pharmacists’ data are necessary to improve the completeness and reliability of Lifelines’ data on thyroid disorders.

Suggested Citation

  • Hanneke J C M Wouters & Sandra N Slagter & Anneke C Muller Kobold & Melanie M van der Klauw & Bruce H R Wolffenbuttel, 2020. "Epidemiology of thyroid disorders in the Lifelines Cohort Study (the Netherlands)," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-17, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0242795
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0242795
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0242795
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0242795&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0242795?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alexander Teumer & Layal Chaker & Stefan Groeneweg & Yong Li & Celia Di Munno & Caterina Barbieri & Ulla T. Schultheiss & Michela Traglia & Tarunveer S. Ahluwalia & Masato Akiyama & Emil Vincent R. Ap, 2018. "Genome-wide analyses identify a role for SLC17A4 and AADAT in thyroid hormone regulation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-14, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alexander T. Williams & Jing Chen & Kayesha Coley & Chiara Batini & Abril Izquierdo & Richard Packer & Erik Abner & Stavroula Kanoni & David J. Shepherd & Robert C. Free & Edward J. Hollox & Nigel J. , 2023. "Genome-wide association study of thyroid-stimulating hormone highlights new genes, pathways and associations with thyroid disease," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    2. Rosalie B. T. M. Sterenborg & Inga Steinbrenner & Yong Li & Melissa N. Bujnis & Tatsuhiko Naito & Eirini Marouli & Tessel E. Galesloot & Oladapo Babajide & Laura Andreasen & Arne Astrup & Bjørn Olav Å, 2024. "Multi-trait analysis characterizes the genetics of thyroid function and identifies causal associations with clinical implications," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-18, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0242795. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.