Thyroid Function Variations Within the Reference Range Do Not Affect Quality of Life, Mood, or Cognitive Function in Community-Dwelling Older Men
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Variations in thyroid function within the laboratory reference range have been associated with a number of clinical outcomes. However, quality of life, mood, and cognitive function have not been extensively studied, and it is not clear whether mild variations in thyroid function have major effects on these neurocognitive outcomes. METHODS: Data were analyzed from the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (MrOS) Study, a cohort of community-dwelling men aged 65 years and older in the United States. A total of 539 participants who were not taking thyroid medications and had age-adjusted TSH levels within the reference range underwent detailed testing of quality of life, mood, and cognitive function at baseline. The same quality of life, mood, and cognitive outcomes were measured again in 193 of the men after a mean follow-up of 6 years. Outcomes were analyzed using thyrotropin (TSH) and free thyroxine (FT4) levels as continuous independent variables, adjusting for relevant covariates. RESULTS: At baseline, there were no associations between TSH or FT4 levels and measures of quality of life, mood, or cognition in the 539 euthyroid men. Baseline thyroid function did not predict changes in these outcomes over a mean of 6 years in the 193 men in the longitudinal analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Variations in thyroid function within the age-adjusted laboratory reference range are not associated with variations in quality of life, mood, or cognitive function in community-dwelling older men.
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When age-adjusted TSH reference ranges were used, no association was found between thyroid function and quality of life, mood, and cognition at baseline nor over 5-8 years of follow-up in community-dwelling older men.
“In addition, when the age-adjusted TSH reference ranges were used, no association between thyroid function and quality of life, mood, and cognition at baseline nor over the 5–8 years of follow-up in community-dwelling older men was found (32).”
From Levothyroxine therapy in elderly patients with hypothyroidism (2021) · cites this paper as [32]
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Levothyroxine therapy in elderly patients with hypothyroidism
Effraimidis, G., Watt, T., & Feldt-Rasmussen, U. (2021) · Frontiers in Endocrinology · doi:10.3389/fendo.2021.641560 · Cited by 60 · see citing works
- Authors
- Samuels, M. H., Kaimal, R., Waring, A., Fink, H. A., Yaffe, K., Hoffman, A. R., Orwoll, E., & Bauer, D.
- Affiliations
- Oregon Health & Science University (US)
- Portland State University (US)
- San Francisco General Hospital (US)
- Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center (US)
- University of California, San Francisco (US)
- Stanford Medicine (US)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Thyroid
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2016-09
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 1185-1194
- ISSN
- 1050-7256 (ISSN-L)
- 1557-9077
- PMC
- PMC5036313
- OpenAlex
- W2519213557
- Cited by
- 18
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 1.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Thyroid (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (UL1TR000128, RR024140)
- National Institute on Aging (U01AG042145, U01AG042168, U01 AR45580, U01-AG-18197, U01AG018197, U01 AR45632, U01AG027810, U01 AR45654, U01 AR45614, U01AG042139, U01AG042124, U01 AR45583, AG027810, U01AG042140, U01 AR45647)
- National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (U01AR45614, U01-AR45632, U01 AR45647, U01AR045583, U01 AR-45583, U01-AR-45654, U01AR045580, U01AR045632, U01AR045654, U01AR045614, U01AR045647, U01AR066160, U01 AG18197, U01AR45580)
- National Center for Research Resources (UL1RR024140)
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Thyroid Disorders and Treatments
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Hormonal and reproductive studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Surgery › Thyroid and Parathyroid Surgery
- Keywords
- thyroid function, thyroid-stimulating hormone, free thyroxine, quality of life, mood, cognitive function, older men, community-dwelling older adults, MrOS study, osteoporotic fractures
- MeSH terms
- Affect, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cognition, Humans, Male, Prospective Studies, Quality of Life, Reference Values, Thyroid Gland, Thyrotropin, Thyroxine
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