Gender differences in the relationship between plasma lipids and fasting plasma glucose in non-diabetic urban Chinese...

The association between dyslipidemia and elevated fasting glucose in type 2 diabetes is well known. In non-diabetes, whether this association still exists, and whether dyslipidemia is an independent risk factor for high fasting plasma glucose (FPG) levels are not clear. This cross-sectional study recruited 3460 non-diabetic Chinese subjects (1027 men, and 2433 women, aged 35-75 years old) who participated in a health survey. Men and women were classified into tertiles by levels of plasma lipids respectively. In women, the prevalence of impaired fasting glucose (IFG) was decreased with increased HDL-C. A stepwise increase in HDL-C was associated with decreasing FPG levels (lowest tertiles, FPG: 5.376 ± 0.018; middle tertiles, 5.324 ± 0.018; highest tertiles, 5.276 ± 0.018 mmol/L; P = 0.001). Reversely, FPG levels increased from lowest tertiles to highest tertiles of LDL-C, TC, and TG. we found that women in the first tertile with lower HDL-C level had a 1.75-fold increase in risk of IFG compared with non-diabetic women in the third tertile with higher HDL-C level (OR: 1.75; 95% CI: 1.20-2.56). In men, no significant association was found. We took age, BMI, waist/hip ratio, education, smoking, alcohol drinking, and physical exercise as adjusted variables. In Chinese non-diabetic women, dyslipidemia is independently associated with high levels of FPG; TG, HDL-C, and LDL-C are predictors of IFG independent of BMI and waist/hip ratio.