Predictive value of simplified insulin resistance assessment indicators for metabolic syndrome in middle-aged and elderly Chinese without established diabetes

Objective To investigate the predictive value of simplified insulin resistance (IR) assessment indicators for metabolic syndrome (MetS) in middle-aged and elderly Chinese individuals without established diabetes. Methods A total of 16,621 subjects from Shijingshan District, Beijing, China, were recruited for the study from November 2011 to August 2012. Data on demographic information, lifestyle, history of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidemia, anthropometric indices, and biomarkers were recorded. MetS was diagnosed based on the diagnostic standards of the Chinese Diabetes Society (CDS) MetS (2020 edition). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to analyze the predictive power of different simplified IR assessment indicators, including the triglyceride-glucose index (TyG), plasma TG-to-HDL concentration ratio (TG/HDL-C), TyG-body mass index (TyG-BMI), TyG-waist circumference (TyG-WC), and TyG-waist-to-height ratio (TyG-WHtR) for MetS, and the area under the curve (AUC) was calculated. Results Among men, the area under the curve of the simplified IR surrogate index for MS was as follows: TyG-WC > TyG-WHtR > TyG-BMI > TyG = TG/HDL-C. Among women, the ranking was TyG-WC > TyG-WHtR > TyG-BMI > TyG > TG/HDL-C ratio. The AUC for TyG-WC were 0.900 and 0.905 for men and women, respectively. The optimal TyG-WC was 779.8 in men and 746.3 in women. Conclusions TyG, TG/HDL-C ratio, TyG-BMI, TyG-WC, and TyG-WHtR can be used to predict MetS risk. Among them, TyG-WC was a more powerful predictor of MetS than the other four indexes.