Xu L, Zeng F, Wang Y, et al. - There was a high prevalence of thyroid nodules. It was shown that the associated factors distinguished in this research could help the clinicians to detect the high-risk patients and make targeted screening strategies for the prevention of the occurrence of thyroid nodules (TNs).

• Researchers recruited a total of 121,702 individuals, 41,547 had TNs, and 20,899 had multiple thyroid nodules (MTNs), with the prevalence of 34.1 and 17.0 %, respectively.

• Compared with men, women had a significantly higher prevalence of TNs (40.6 % vs. 29.8 %; χ2 = 1517.33, P < 0.001), and TNs prevalence gradually elevated with age (P for trend < 0.001).

• The results showed that female gender, advanced age, and metabolic factors including central obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and fatty liver were positively correlated with TNs: BMI, hyperlipidemia, and hyperuricemia were not independent risk factors of TNs.

• While the independent risk factors of MTNs included female gender, advanced age, central obesity, hypertension, and diabetes.