ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Our aim was to determine the prevalence of subclinical thyroid disease in a healthy institutionalised geriatric population. PATIENTS AND METHOD: We determined TSH, free T4 and antithyroid antibodies from 242 healthy elderly subjects living in Andalusian public nursing homes. RESULTS: Subclinical hypothyroidism was detected in 3.71% of cases; clinical hypothyroidism in 1.65%; subclinical hyperthyroidism in 0.82%,and autoimmune disease in 10.33%. CONCLUSIONS: There is a high rate of clinically undetected thyroid dysfunction among the healthy institutionalised geriatric population. Therefore, a hormonal screening may be justified in this population.
Subject(s)
Autoimmune Diseases/epidemiology , Hyperthyroidism/epidemiology , Hypothyroidism/epidemiology , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Autoimmune Diseases/blood , Female , Hospitalization/statistics & numerical data , Humans , Hyperthyroidism/blood , Hypothyroidism/blood , Male , Nursing Homes/statistics & numerical data , Prevalence , Thyrotropin/blood , Thyroxine/bloodABSTRACT
Oral nutritional supplements are products included in enteral nutrition, preferably used in hospital settings, although their use in the community is gradually increasing and in the United Kingdom has doubled in the last seven years, with prescriptions covering a wide range of the population from children to the elderly, and different pathologies affecting their nutritional status. There is, however, no consensus on the usefulness of oral nutritional supplements among these patients, so we do not have any recommendations for use. In this paper we have reviewed the various studies available in the literature in order to clarify the usefulness of these supplements in different contexts or pathologies.
