(HealthDay News) — Hypothyroidism is associated with increased risk for diabetes; however, subclinical hypothyroidism appears to increase this risk only with statin use, according to research published in Diabetes Care.

Naomi Gronich, MD, from the Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, and colleagues examined risk factors for the development of statin-associated diabetes in a two-phase study. Risk factors were identified in a high-throughput in silico processing phase.

In the second phase, the most prominent risk factor identified was confirmed in an observational cohort study at the largest health care organization in Israel.

Overall, 39,263 statin nonusers were propensity score matched with 20,334 highly compliant statin initiators in 2004 to 2005; patients were followed through 2010.

In a multivariable model, hypothyroidism and subclinical hypothyroidism correlated with increased risk for diabetes (rate ratios, 1.53 and 1.75, respectively) among statin users and nonusers, according to the researchers. The correlation between hypothyroidism and increased diabetes risk was seen for statin users and nonusers, regardless of statin use (rate ratios, 2.06 and 1.66, respectively).

Subclinical hypothyroidism also correlated with increased diabetes risk only for statin users (rate ratios, 1.94; 95% CI, 1.13-3.34] for statin users and 1.2 95% CI, 0.52 -2.75 for nonusers).

There was no increased diabetes risk for patients with hypothyroidism treated with thyroid hormone replacement therapy.

“Hypothyroidism is a risk factor for [diabetes],” the researchers wrote. “Subclinical hypothyroidism-associated risk for [diabetes] is prominent only upon statin use.”

Two authors disclosed financial ties to Biovista.

Reference

1. Gronich N et al. Diabetes Care. 2015;doi:10.2337/dc14-2515.