Prevalence and Associated Factors of Thyroid Nodules Among 52,003 Chinese ‘Healthy’ Individuals in Beijing: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study

Figures & data

Table 1 Prevalence of Thyroid Nodules in Study Population Stratified by Age and Gender (Visualized in Figure 1)

Age (Years)	Male Gender Individuals			Female Gender Individuals			Total (Male and Female Individuals)
	No. with Nodules	Total No.	Prevalence Rate (%)	No. with Nodules	Total No.	Prevalence Rate (%)	No. with Nodules	Total No.	Prevalence Rate (%)
<30	640	3686	17.4	1569	5983	26.2	2209	9669	22.8
30–40	1704	8470	20.1	3369	10,309	32.7	5073	18,779	27.0
40–50	1356	4325	31.4	2583	5341	48.4	3939	9666	40.8
50–60	1444	3208	45.0	2401	3838	62.6	3845	7046	54.6
60–70	1206	2035	59.3	2181	2921	74.7	3387	4956	68.3
70–80	285	454	62.8	903	1107	81.6	1188	1561	76.1
>80	91	127	71.7	169	199	84.9	260	326	79.8
Total (all ages)	6726	22,305	30.2	13,175	29,698	44.4	19,901	52,003	38.3

Figure 1 Prevalence of thyroid nodules increases with age.

Table 2 Distribution of Thyroid Nodules

Location of Nodules	Male Gender Individuals (n=6,669)		Female Gender Individuals (n=13,030)		Total (Male and Female Gender Individuals) (n=19,699)
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
Left thyroid	1944	29.25	3210	24.64	5154	26.16
Right thyroid	2151	32.25	3510	26.94	5661	28.74
Both sides	2541	38.10	6238	47.87	8779	44.57
Isthmus	23	0.35	53	0.41	76	0.38
Left and isthmus	2	0.03	11	0.08	13	0.07
Right and Isthmus	3	0.04	4	0.03	7	0.04
Both sides and isthmus	5	0.08	4	0.03	9	0.05

Table 3 Comparison of the Characteristics Between the Cross-Sectional Population and the Study Population

Variable	Study Population (52,003)		Cross-Sectional Population (35,420)	p-value
	No. of Cases with Records	Variable Value	Variable Value
Age (years)	52,003	41.68±13.41	42.06±13.43	<0.001
Number of males	52,003	22,305(42.9%)	15,262(43.1%)	0.564
No. of participants with thyroid nodules	52,003	19,901(38.3%)	13,575(38.3%)	0.865
BMI (kg/m^2)	48,438	24.05±3.81	24.22±3.88	<0.001
Systolic BP (mmHg)	49,546	117.83±17.07	118.13±17.23	0.011
Diastolic BP (mmHg)	40,545	69.01±11.06	69.15±11.17	0.066
GLU (mmol/L)	51,050	5.18±1.13	5.20±1.14	0.009
UA (mmol/L)	49,647	273.79±81.22	274.65±81.68	0.128
TC (mmol/L)	51,050	4.46±0.92	4.49±0.92	<0.001
TG (mmol/L)	51,050	1.25±1.06	1.28±1.08	<0.001
LDL-C (mmol/L)	43,483	3.42±0.86	3.42±0.85	0,823
HDL-C (mmol/L)	53,525	1.86±0.51	1.86±0.51	0.20
No. of participants with fatty liver	46,607	15,358 (33.0%)	11,938 (33.7%)	0.024
No. of participants with prostatic hyperplasia	21,645	3480 (16.1%)	*2445 (16.2%)	0.677

Notes: *Only 15,055 records in the cross-sectional population had information on prostatic hyperplasia.

Table 4 Logistic Regression of Potential Risk Factors for Thyroid Nodules

Independent Variables	Male Gender Individuals			Female Gender Individuals
	p-Value	Odds Ratio (OR)	95% Confidence Interval (CI)	p-value	Odds Ratio (OR)	95% Confidence Interval (CI)
Increased age*	0.000	1.050	1.046–1.053	0.000	1.058	1.055–1.060
Fasting glucose**
Normal (ref.)	-	1.0	-	-	1.0	-
Impaired fasting glucose	0.044	1.161	1.004–1.342	0.543	0.947	0.756–1.188
Diabetes mellitus	0.047	1.163	1.002–1.350	0.668	0.999	0.841–1.190
Low HDL-C***
No (ref.)	-	1.0	-	-	1.0	-
Yes	0.018	1.288	1.044–1.590	0.000	2.206	1.512–3.263
Benign prostatic hyperplasia***
No (ref.)	-	1.0	-	-	-	-
Yes	0.000	1.261	1.134–1.403	-	-	-

Notes: *Continuous variable. **Categorical variable. ***Binary variable.