ABSTRACT
Diabetes mellitus is commonly associated with altered thyroid function. There is much less data about thyroid diseases in patients with type 2 diabetes. This study was conducted to examine the prevalence and associated factors of the most frequent thyroid dysfunction among type 2 diabetic patients. The study design can be differentiated into two components. The first was a cross-sectional survey to determine the prevalence of thyroid dysfunction among type 2 diabetic patients. Recruitment efforts resulted in 1580 patients. Thyroid dysfunctions were diagnosed in 204 patients. The second component of the study was a case-control study to identify factors associated with thyroid diseases, whereas patients with thyroid dysfunctions [cases] were compared with a randomly selected similar number of type 2 diabetic patients with euthyroid status. The prevalence rate of thyroid dysfunction in type 2 diabetic patients was 12.9%, the most common was subclinical hypothyroidism [45.1%]. The multivariate analysis revealed that female gender, Kuwaiti nationality, personal history of autoimmune disease and smoking were significant predictor variables. The prevalence of thyroid dysfunction among diabetic patients in Kuwait is common. Subclinical hypothyroidism is prevailing. All patients with type 2 diabetes should undergo bi-annual screening to detect asymptomatic thyroid dysfunction