ReviewThyroid research2023
Age-related variation in thyroid function - a narrative review highlighting important implications for research and clinical practice.
Review in Thyroid research, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 41 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
41 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 61 citations in OpenAlex.
- Treatment of Hypothyroidism That Contains Liothyronine is Associated With Reduced Risk of Dementia and Mortality.The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism · 2026Pooled it
- Roles of External Factors and Polygenic Susceptibility in Thyroid Nodules and Goiter Among Children Aged 8-10 Years in Iodine-adequate Areas of Northern China.Biological trace element research · 2026Article
- Dynamic patterns of thyroid hormones and incident chronic kidney disease: evidence from 18 years of follow-up in the Tehran Thyroid Study.Journal of endocrinological investigation · 2026Article
- The effects of prediabetes and type 2 diabetes mellitus on cognitive status, physical function, and fatigue in older adults: a case-control study.Irish journal of medical science · 2026Article
- Validation of Immunoassays for Total Thyroxine and Free Thyroxine and Age and Sex-Related Variation in Thyroid Hormone Serum Concentrations in Orangutans (Pongo sp.).Journal of medical primatology · 2026Article
- Hypothyroidism in adult spinal deformity.Spine deformity · 2026Article
- Impacts of new sex- and age-specific TSH and FT4 reference ranges on thyroid status and metabolic disorder associations.Journal of the Endocrine Society · 2026Article
- Revisiting Thyroid Function in Patients Undergoing Electroconvulsive Therapy for Severe or Treatment-Resistant Depression.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- RBP4 in Ageing.Biomedicines · 2026Review
- Natural product-based interventions for thyroid disorders: mechanisms and applications.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2026Review
- Iodine and Thyroid Dysfunction in Ageing: Nutritional, Pharmacologic, and Microbial Modifiers in Older Adults.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Association of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene-related Factors, Nutritional Status, and Sociodemographic Covariates with Urinary Iodine Concentration Levels among Filipino Women of Reproductive Age (15-49 Years): A Cross-sectional Study.Acta medica Philippina · 2026Article
- Silent Thyroid, Loud Lipids: The Hidden Link in Asymptomatic Adults.Juntendo medical journal · 2026Article
- Thyroid hormones and energy metabolism in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.Brain communications · 2026Article
- Proteomics of aging: biomarkers for physiological systems and diseases.Frontiers in aging · 2026Review
- Endocrine regulation of uromodulin in aging.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2026Review
- Phenotypic Age Acceleration as a Mediator in Thyroid Hormone-Related Cardiovascular Risk Among the Elderly.Cardiology research and practice · 2026Article
- Thyroid-Microbiome Allostasis and Mitochondrial Performance: An Integrative Perspective in Exercise Physiology.Nutrients · 2025Review
- Thyroid dysfunction in ageing populations.Endocrine connections · 2025Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThyroid hormones are key determinants of health and well-being. Normal thyroid function is defined according to the standard 95% confidence interval of the disease-free population. Such standard laboratory reference intervals are widely applied in research and clinical practice, irrespective of age. However, thyroid hormones vary with age and current reference intervals may not be appropriate across all age groups. In this review, we summarize the recent literature on age-related variation in thyroid function and discuss important implications of such variation for research and clinical practice. MAIN TEXT: There is now substantial evidence that normal thyroid status changes with age throughout the course of life. Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) concentrations are higher at the extremes of life and show a U-shaped longitudinal trend in iodine sufficient Caucasian populations. Free triiodothyronine (FT3) levels fall with age and appear to play a role in pubertal development, during which it shows a strong relationship with fat mass. Furthermore, the aging process exerts differential effects on the health consequences of thyroid hormone variations. Older individuals with declining thyroid function appear to have survival advantages compared to individuals with normal or high-normal thyroid function. In contrast younger or middle-aged individuals with low-normal thyroid function suffer an increased risk of adverse cardiovascular and metabolic outcomes while those with high-normal function have adverse bone outcomes including osteoporosis and fractures.
conclusionThyroid hormone reference intervals have differential effects across age groups. Current reference ranges could potentially lead to inappropriate treatment in older individuals but on the other hand could result in missed opportunities for risk factor modification in the younger and middle-aged groups. Further studies are now needed to determine the validity of age-appropriate reference intervals and to understand the impact of thyroid hormone variations in younger individuals.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.