Association between thyroid function and gallstone disease

Table 1 Baseline clinical characteristics of study participants with low (< 0.3 mIU/L), normal (0.3–3 mIU/L) and high (> 3 mIU/L) serum TSH levels

	Low serum	Normal serum	High serum
	TSH n = 385	TSH n = 3321	TSH n = 43
Age (yr)	57.2±15.2a	48.4±16.3	51.1±12.7
Sex (male)	218 (56.6%)	1 723 (51.9%)	13 (30.2%)a
Education
<10 yr	209 (54.6%)a	1 206 (36.6%)	14 (32.6%)
10 yr (Ref.)	132 (34.5%)	1 556 (47.2%)	19 (44.2%)
>10 yr	42 (11.0%)	535 (16.2%)	10 (23.3%)
Physical activity	130 (33.9%)a	1 445 (43.7%)	19 (44.2%)
Current cigarette smoking
Never (Ref.)	125 (32.6%)	1 138 (34.4%)	15 (34.9%)
Former	151 (39.4%)	1 109 (33.5%)	17 (39.5%)
Current	107 (27.9%)	1 061 (32.1%)	11 (25.6%)
Diabetes mellitus	38 (10.0%)	269 (8.2%)	0
Body mass index; kg/m²	27.4±4.5	27.1±4.7	27.9±4.6
Total cholesterol; mg/dL	221±44	223±49	240±53a
mmol/L	5.71±1.14	5.76±1.26	6.20±1.38a
LDL-Cholesterol; mg/dL	138±41	138±45	152±50
mmol/L	3.56±1.05	3.56±1.18	3.92±1.30
HDL-Cholesterol; mg/dL	54±17a	56±17	60±17
mmol/L	1.41±0.44a	1.45±0.44	1.56±0.43

χ2-test (nominal data) or ANOVA (interval data) for inter-group comparisons; aP<0.05 vs reference group: normal serum TSH. LDL denotes low density lipoprotein, HDL; high density lipoprotein.

Table 2 Prevalence of previous history of cholecystectomy and sonographically detected gallstones among males and females

	History of cholecystectomy (%)	Ultrasound diagnosis of gallstones (%)	Total (%)
Males	122 (6.8)	160 (8.7)	282 (14.4)
Females	257 (16.1)	198 (12.9)	455 (25.3)
All	379 (11.2)	358 (10.6)	737 (19.7)

Table 3 Sex-specific independent risk factors for cholelithiasis

	Males OR (95%CI)	Females (95%CI)
Age; yr (Ref. <30)
30-<40	4.15 (1.17-14.69)	1.97 (1.04-3.75)
40-<50	8.32 (2.47-28.03)	4.67 (2.55-8.52)
50-<60	16.68 (5.04-55.22)	7.16 (3.85-13.30)
60-<70	28.02 (8.44-93.05)	13.01 (6.81-24.88)
≥70	40.09 (12.02-133.76)	19.60 (9.92-38.72)
Education; yr (Ref. 10)
<10	0.88 (0.62-1.26)	0.93 (0.67-1.30)
>10	0.72 (0.44-1.16)	0.68 (0.44-1.05)
Physical activity	0.96 (0.71-1.29)	0.78 (0.60-1.02)
Smoking (Ref. non)
Ex-smoker	1.15 (0.79-1.68)	0.73 (0.53-1.01)
Current smoker	1.03 (0.66-1.61)	0.78 (0.56-1.10)
Diabetes mellitus	1.37 (0.94-2.01)	1.10 (0.72-1.71)
Body mass index; per kg/m²	1.04 (1.01-1.08)	1.08 (1.06-1.11)
LDL cholesterol; per 10 mg/dL	0.97 (0.94-1.02)	0.97 (0.94-1.01)
HDL cholesterol; per 10 mg/dL	0.87 (0.78-0.97)	0.87 (0.78-0.97)

Logistic regression analysis, OR denotes odds ratio; 95%CI, confidence interval; LDL, low density lipoprotein; HDL, high density lipoprotein.

Table 4 The association between serum TSH levels and cholelithiasis according to sex

	Regression models	Low (<0.3 mIU/L)OR (95%CI)	Serum TSH normal (0.3–3.0 mIU/L)OR (95%CI)	High (> 0.3 mIU/L)OR (95%CI)
Males;	Crude	1.89 (1.34–2.67)1	1.0 (Reference)	2.90 (0.90–9.49)
OR	Adjusted for confounding variables2	1.40 (0.96–2.02)	1.0 (Reference)	3.77 (1.06–13.41)1
Females;	Crude	1.42 (1.01–2.01)1	1.0 (Reference)	1.11 (0.49–2.52)
OR	Adjusted for confounding variables2	0.89 (0.61–1.32)	1.0 (Reference)	0.91 (0.38–2.19)

¹Logistic regression analysis,

²Age (decades), education (three categories), physical activity (yr/n), smoking (three categories), diabetes (yr/n), body mass index (cont.). OR denotes odds ratio; 95%–CI, confidence interval.