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A case‐control study of the association between ulcerative colitis and hyperthyroidism in an Asian population
Author(s) -
Tsai MingChieh,
Lin HerngChing,
Lee ChaZe
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
clinical endocrinology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 147
eISSN - 1365-2265
pISSN - 0300-0664
DOI - 10.1111/cen.13332
Subject(s) - medicine , odds ratio , ulcerative colitis , confidence interval , case control study , logistic regression , population , etiology , gastroenterology , disease , environmental health
Summary Objective Ulcerative colitis ( UC ) is a chronic relapsing inflammatory disease with significant clinical diversity. However, the aetiology, pathogenesis and optimal treatment of UC remain unclear. The purpose of this case‐control study was to investigate the association between previously diagnosed hyperthyroidism and UC using a large population‐based data set in Taiwan. Methods The data for this population‐based case‐control study were retrieved from the Taiwan Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2005. We included 2709 patients with UC as cases and 8127 sex‐ and age‐matched patients without UC as controls. A conditional logistic regression analysis was conducted to compute the odds ratio ( OR ) and corresponding 95% confidence interval ( CI ) for the association between UC and prior hyperthyroidism. Results We found that, in total, 327 of the 10 836 sampled patients (3.02%) had previously been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. There was a higher proportion of prior hyperthyroidism among cases than controls (4.10% vs 2.66%, P <.001). A conditional logistic regression showed that the OR of prior hyperthyroidism was 1.57 (95% CI =1.24‐1.98) compared to controls. Similarly, after adjusting for monthly income, geographic location and urbanization level, cases were still more likely to have previously been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism than controls ( OR =1.61, 95% CI =1.27‐2.05). Furthermore, we analysed the OR s of prior hyperthyroidism between cases and controls according to age group. We found that of the youngest group of sampled patients (18‐39 years), cases had the greatest adjusted OR for having previously been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism than controls ( OR =1.98, 95% CI =1.04‐3.79). Conclusions This study demonstrated an association between UC and hyperthyroidism.