| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Submitted on November 12, 2004
Accepted on April 21, 2005
Endocrine Unit, Medical Clinic I, Bispebjerg Hospital, Copenhagen; Research Centre for Prevention and Health, Copenhagen County; Department of Endocrinology, Aalborg Hospital, Aalborg; Department of Nutrition, Danish Institute for Food and Veterinary Research, Søborg; The National Heart Foundation, Copenhagen.; The Danish Centre for Prevention of Thyroid Diseases (DanThyr)
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: nk01{at}bbh.hosp.dk.
Context: Increasing prevalence of overweight in the population is a major concern globally, and in the United States nearly one third of adults were classified as obese at the end of the 20th century. Few data have been presented regarding an association between variations in thyroid function seen in the general population and body weight.
Objective: To investigate the association between thyroid function and BMI or obesity in a normal population.
Design: Cross-sectional population study (The DanThyr Study).
Participants: In all 4649 participants were investigated and 4082 were eligible for these analyses after exclusion of subjects with previous or present overt thyroid dysfunction.
Main Outcome Measures: Association between category of serum TSH or serum thyroid hormones and BMI or obesity in multivariate models adjusting for possible confounding.
Results: We found a positive association between BMI and category of serum TSH (P < 0.001) and a negative association between BMI and category of serum fT4 (P < 0.001). No association was found between BMI and serum free T3 levels. The difference in BMI between the groups with the highest and lowest serum TSH levels was 1.9 kg/m2 corresponding to a difference in body weight of 5.5 kg among women. Similarly, category of serum TSH correlated positively with weight gain during 5 yr (P = 0.04), but no statistically significant association was found with weight gain during 6 months (P = 0.17). There was an association between obesity (BMI > 30 kg/m2) and serum TSH levels (P = 0.001).
Conclusions: Our results suggest that thyroid function - also within the normal range - could be one of several factors acting in concert to determine body weight in a population. Even slightly elevated serum TSH levels are associated with an increase in the occurrence of obesity.
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
S. H. Choi, Y. J. Lee, Y. J. Park, K. W. Kim, E. J. Lee, S. Lim, D. J. Park, S. E. Kim, K. S. Park, H. C. Jang, et al. Retinol Binding Protein-4 Elevation Is Associated with Serum Thyroid-Stimulating Hormone Level Independently of Obesity in Elderly Subjects with Normal Glucose Tolerance J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab., June 1, 2008; 93(6): 2313 - 2318. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
B. O. Asvold, T. Bjoro, T. I. L. Nilsen, D. Gunnell, and L. J. Vatten Thyrotropin Levels and Risk of Fatal Coronary Heart Disease: The HUNT Study Arch Intern Med, April 28, 2008; 168(8): 855 - 860. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
R. E. Weiss and R. L. Brown Doctor . . . Could It Be My Thyroid? Arch Intern Med, March 24, 2008; 168(6): 568 - 569. [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
C. S. Fox, M. J. Pencina, R. B. D'Agostino, J. M. Murabito, E. W. Seely, E. N. Pearce, and R. S. Vasan Relations of Thyroid Function to Body Weight: Cross-sectional and Longitudinal Observations in a Community-Based Sample Arch Intern Med, March 24, 2008; 168(6): 587 - 592. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
B. Biondi and D. S. Cooper The Clinical Significance of Subclinical Thyroid Dysfunction Endocr. Rev., February 1, 2008; 29(1): 76 - 131. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
B. O. Asvold, T. Bjoro, T. I. Nilsen, and L. J. Vatten Tobacco Smoking and Thyroid Function: Is Weight Gain a Confounder? Reply Arch Intern Med, January 14, 2008; 168(1): 114 - 114. [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
D C Ferguson, Z Caffall, and M Hoenig Obesity increases free thyroxine proportionally to nonesterified fatty acid concentrations in adult neutered female cats J. Endocrinol., August 1, 2007; 194(2): 267 - 273. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
E. Ortega, N. Pannacciulli, C. Bogardus, and J. Krakoff Plasma concentrations of free triiodothyronine predict weight change in euthyroid persons Am. J. Clinical Nutrition, February 1, 2007; 85(2): 440 - 445. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
R. P Peeters, W. M van der Deure, and T. J Visser Genetic variation in thyroid hormone pathway genes; polymorphisms in the TSH receptor and the iodothyronine deiodinases. Eur. J. Endocrinol., November 1, 2006; 155(5): 655 - 662. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
P. Vejbjerg, N. Knudsen, H. Perrild, P. Laurberg, I. B. Pedersen, L. B Rasmussen, L. Ovesen, and T. Jorgensen The association between hypoechogenicity or irregular echo pattern at thyroid ultrasonography and thyroid function in the general population. Eur. J. Endocrinol., October 1, 2006; 155(4): 547 - 552. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
J.-M. Fernandez-Real, A. Lopez-Bermejo, A. Castro, R. Casamitjana, and W. Ricart Thyroid Function Is Intrinsically Linked to Insulin Sensitivity and Endothelium-Dependent Vasodilation in Healthy Euthyroid Subjects J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab., September 1, 2006; 91(9): 3337 - 3343. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
P. Laurberg, T. Jorgensen, H. Perrild, L. Ovesen, N. Knudsen, I. B. Pedersen, L. B Rasmussen, A. Carle, and P. Vejbjerg The Danish investigation on iodine intake and thyroid disease, DanThyr: status and perspectives. Eur. J. Endocrinol., August 1, 2006; 155(2): 219 - 228. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
T. Reinehr, G. de Sousa, and W. Andler Hyperthyrotropinemia in Obese Children Is Reversible after Weight Loss and Is Not Related to Lipids J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab., August 1, 2006; 91(8): 3088 - 3091. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
G Brabant, P Beck-Peccoz, B Jarzab, P Laurberg, J Orgiazzi, I Szabolcs, A P Weetman, and W M Wiersinga Is there a need to redefine the upper normal limit of TSH? Eur. J. Endocrinol., May 1, 2006; 154(5): 633 - 637. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH |
| Endocrinology | Endocrine Reviews | J. Clin. End. & Metab. |
| Molecular Endocrinology | Recent Prog. Horm. Res. | All Endocrine Journals |