Determinants for Thyroid Hormone Replacement Therapy in Subclinical Hypothyroidism: A Multicenter Electronic Health Records-Based Study.

Toloza FJK, El Kawkgi OM, Spencer HJ, Mathews SE, Garcia A, Gamboa A, Mirza N, Mohan S, Vallejo S, Bogojevic M, Rodriguez-Gutierrez R, Singh Ospina NM, Brito JP, Maraka S. Determinants for Thyroid Hormone Replacement Therapy in Subclinical Hypothyroidism: A Multicenter Electronic Health Records-Based Study. Thyroid : official journal of the American Thyroid Association. 2023 Sep 1; 33(9):1045-1054.

Related HSR&D Project(s)

• PPO 20-056 – Discontinuation of levothyroxine therapy for patients with subclinical hypothyroidism: a pilot randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study

Dimensions for VA is a web-based tool available to VA staff that enables detailed searches of published research and research projects.

If you have VA-Intranet access, click here for more information vaww.hsrd.research.va.gov/dimensions/

VA staff not currently on the VA network can access Dimensions by registering for an account using their VA email address.    Search Dimensions for VA for this citation
* Don't have VA-internal network access or a VA email address? Try searching the free-to-the-public version of Dimensions

Search for Abstract from PubMed

---

Abstract:

The frequency and factors associated with thyroid hormone replacement therapy among patients with subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) remain uncertain. In this electronic health records-based observational cohort study, we included adults diagnosed with SCH from four academic centers (the United States and Mexico) from January 1, 2016, to December 31, 2018. We aimed to identify the determinants of thyroid hormone replacement therapy for SCH and the frequency of treated SCH. A total of 796 patients (65.2% women) had SCH, and 165 (20.7%) were treated with thyroid hormone replacement therapy. The treated group was younger [51.0 (standard deviation {SD} 18.3) vs. 55.3 (SD 18.2) years, ? = 0.008] and had a higher proportion of women (72.7% vs. 63.2%, ? = 0.03) compared with the untreated group. Only 46.7% of patients in the treated group and 65.6% in the untreated group had confirmatory thyroid function tests (TFTs) before the decision to start thyroid hormone replacement therapy was made. There was no difference in the frequency of thyroid autoimmunity evaluation, but a positive thyroid autoimmunity test was more frequent in the treated group compared with the untreated group (48.2% vs. 20.3%, ? < 0.001). In a multivariable logistic regression model, female sex (odds ratio [OR]? = 1.71 [CI 1.13-2.59], ? = 0.01) and index thyrotropin (TSH) level (OR? = 1.97 [CI 1.56-2.49], ? < 0.001 for every SD [2.75 mIU/L] change) were associated with higher odds of treatment. Among patients with SCH, female sex and index TSH level were associated with higher odds of treatment. Moreover, in our population, the decision to treat or not to treat SCH was often based on only one set of abnormal TFTs, and thyroid autoimmunity assessment was underused.