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. 2021 Nov 1;181(11):1440-1450.
doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2021.5078.

Association of Thyroid Dysfunction With Cognitive Function: An Individual Participant Data Analysis

Affiliations

Association of Thyroid Dysfunction With Cognitive Function: An Individual Participant Data Analysis

Nicolien A van Vliet et al. JAMA Intern Med. .

Abstract

Importance: In clinical guidelines, overt and subclinical thyroid dysfunction are mentioned as causal and treatable factors for cognitive decline. However, the scientific literature on these associations shows inconsistent findings.

Objective: To assess cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of baseline thyroid dysfunction with cognitive function and dementia.

Design, setting, and participants: This multicohort individual participant data analysis assessed 114 267 person-years (median, 1.7-11.3 years) of follow-up for cognitive function and 525 222 person-years (median, 3.8-15.3 years) for dementia between 1989 and 2017. Analyses on cognitive function included 21 cohorts comprising 38 144 participants. Analyses on dementia included eight cohorts with a total of 2033 cases with dementia and 44 573 controls. Data analysis was performed from December 2016 to January 2021.

Exposures: Thyroid function was classified as overt hyperthyroidism, subclinical hyperthyroidism, euthyroidism, subclinical hypothyroidism, and overt hypothyroidism based on uniform thyrotropin cutoff values and study-specific free thyroxine values.

Main outcomes and measures: The primary outcome was global cognitive function, mostly measured using the Mini-Mental State Examination. Executive function, memory, and dementia were secondary outcomes. Analyses were first performed at study level using multivariable linear regression and multivariable Cox regression, respectively. The studies were combined with restricted maximum likelihood meta-analysis. To overcome the use of different scales, results were transformed to standardized mean differences. For incident dementia, hazard ratios were calculated.

Results: Among 74 565 total participants, 66 567 (89.3%) participants had normal thyroid function, 577 (0.8%) had overt hyperthyroidism, 2557 (3.4%) had subclinical hyperthyroidism, 4167 (5.6%) had subclinical hypothyroidism, and 697 (0.9%) had overt hypothyroidism. The study-specific median age at baseline varied from 57 to 93 years; 42 847 (57.5%) participants were women. Thyroid dysfunction was not associated with global cognitive function; the largest differences were observed between overt hypothyroidism and euthyroidism-cross-sectionally (-0.06 standardized mean difference in score; 95% CI, -0.20 to 0.08; P = .40) and longitudinally (0.11 standardized mean difference higher decline per year; 95% CI, -0.01 to 0.23; P = .09). No consistent associations were observed between thyroid dysfunction and executive function, memory, or risk of dementia.

Conclusions and relevance: In this individual participant data analysis of more than 74 000 adults, subclinical hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism were not associated with cognitive function, cognitive decline, or incident dementia. No rigorous conclusions can be drawn regarding the role of overt thyroid dysfunction in risk of dementia. These findings do not support the practice of screening for subclinical thyroid dysfunction in the context of cognitive decline in older adults as recommended in current guidelines.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: Dr van Vliet reported grants from European Commission Horizon 2020 program during the conduct of the study. Dr van Heemst reported grants from European Commission during the conduct of the study; grants from Velux Stiftung (grant No. 1156) outside the submitted work. Dr Almeida reported grants from National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia during the conduct of the study and outside the submitted work. Dr Brayne reported grants from Medical Research Council during the conduct of the study. Dr Degryse reported grants from Fondation Louvain during the conduct of the study. Dr Flicker reported grants to the University of Western Australia from Australian National Health and Medical Research Council during the conduct of the study. Dr Grabe has received travel grants and speakers honoraria from Fresenius Medical Care, Neuraxpharm, Servier, and Janssen Cilag as well as research funding from Fresenius Medical Care outside the submitted work. Dr Huisman reported grants from Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport for setting up and maintaining a prospective cohort study, of which data were used during the conduct of the study. Dr Lopez reported personal fees for consulting from Biogen and Grifols outside the submitted work. Dr Mooijaart reported nonfinancial support (provision of medication free of charge) from Merck during the conduct of the study. Dr Nauck reported grants from Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany, European Union Interreg IVa grants No. 01ZZ9603, 01ZZ0103, 01ZZ0403, 81Z7400171, 81Z7400173, INT-10-0008; personal fees for advisory boards and presentations from Radiometer, Becton Dickinson, AstraZeneca, Technopath Clinical Diagnostics, Novartis, Sysmex, Tosoh, medpoint Medizinkommunikations GmbH, ProteinT, and MDI Limbach; and travel/accommodations expenses covered or reimbursed from German Medical Association (BÄK), German Centre for Cardiovascular Research (GCCR), National Cohort, German Society for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine e.V. (DGKL), ISBER, DAkkS, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), and Max Rubner-Institut outside the submitted work. Dr Yeap reported grants from National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia during the conduct of the study. Dr Rodondi reported grants from Swiss National Science Foundation during the conduct of the study. No other disclosures were reported.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Cross-sectional Association Between Thyroid Dysfunction and Cognitive Function Test Scores
Standardized mean differences were adjusted for age and sex. Error bars indicate 95% CIs.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Longitudinal Association Between Thyroid Dysfunction and Cognitive Function Test Scores
Standardized mean differences were adjusted for age, sex, and baseline cognitive function. Error bars indicate 95% CIs.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.. Longitudinal Association Between Thyroid Dysfunction and Incident Dementia
Hazard ratios were adjusted for age and sex. Error bars indicate 95% CIs.

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