Thyroid hormone levels associate with insulin resistance in obese women with metabolic syndrome in Saudi Arabia: A cross-sectional study

Abstract Background The obesity epidemic is a pressing global health concern, as obesity rates continue to climb worldwide. The current study was aimed mainly to evaluate the correlation between thyroid hormones and homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance in Saudi obese women with metabolic syndrome. Methods 100 obese women aged 25 to 55 years were clinically evaluated, from which 72 women were diagnosed with the metabolic syndrome and 28 without metabolic syndrome. Insulin resistance was quantified using the homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance method and the resulting values were analyzed for association with demographic, clinical, and metabolic parameters. Results This analysis revealed that body mass index, systolic blood pressure, and biochemical parameters and fasting insulin showed statistically higher levels in the group with metabolic syndrome compared to the group without metabolic syndrome. Similarly, values of waist circumference, fat ratio, cholesterol, free thyroxine, free triiodothyronine and homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance results were higher in the group with metabolic syndrome as compared to the group without metabolic syndrome. Correlation analysis revealed positive association of thyroid-stimulating hormone with waist circumference (P=0.01), total cholesterol (P=0.002), fasting insulin (P=0.03) and homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance results (P Homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance test revealed elevated level with positive association of body mass index, waist circumference, biochemical parameters and thyroid-stimulating hormone in insulin resistant obese women. Higher level of free triiodothyronine was found to be associated with low insulin sensitivity.