Thyroid stimulating hormone levels and geriatric syndromes: secondary nested case-control study of the Mexican Health and Aging Study

Purpose: To determine the incidence of geriatric syndromes (GS) in community dwelling older adults with subclinical hypothyroidism.

Methods: This is an analysis from the Mexican Health and Aging Study, of a subsample of 2089 subjects with TSH determination. From this last subsample, we included 1628 individuals with TSH levels in the subclinical range (4.5-10 µU/ml).

Results: The multivariate analysis showed that when comparing data obtained from the 2012 wave with the 2015 wave results, there was a significant incidence of some GS such as falls (OR 1.79, CI 1.16-2.77, p = 0.0116), fatigue (OR 2.17, CI 1.40-3.38, p = 0.0348) and depression (OR 1.70, CI 1.06-2.71, p = 0.0246) among the subclinical hypothyroidism group.

Conclusion: This study showed a greater incidence of GS in subjects 50 years and older with sub-clinical hypothyroidism, when compared to those with normal thyroid function.