Abstract:Objective: To investigate the prevalence of thyroid nodules in the elderly in iodine-adequate area, and to explore the correlation between glucose metabolism disorders and thyroid nodules in the elderly. Methods: A total of 2 037 elderly people (1 045 males, 51.3%) were enrolled from Suqian and Xuzhou in Jiangsu Province. All the participants underwent physical examination, biochemical test, and thyroid ultrasonography. Logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship between glucose metabolism and thyroid nodule prevalence, thyroid nodule number, thyroid nodule size, benign thyroid nodules and suspected malignant nodules. Results: The prevalence of thyroid nodules in the elderly in iodine-adequate area was 35.1%, of which 42.4%were multiple nodules and 33.9%were nodules≥1 cm. There were significant differences in sex, waist circumference, fasting insulin level and insulin resistance index between the groups with and without thyroid nodules, single thyroid nodule group and multiple thyroid nodule group and nodule<1 cm group and nodule≥1 cm group (all P<0.05) . After the confounding factors were adjusted by the logistic regression model, results showed that fasting blood glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin and insulin resistance index were associated with the risk of thyroid nodule occurrence and the size of thyroid nodules. Conclusion: Thyroid nodules is prevalent in the elderly in iodine-adequate area. Glucose metabolism disorder is significantly related to the prevalence and size of thyroid nodules.
