Association of the Triglyceride-Glucose Index and Obesity Indicators with Multiple Chronic Diseases: A Longitudinal...

To explore the relationship between triglyceride glucose (TyG) and the obesity combined indexes and the occurrence of multiple chronic diseases (MCD), which will help to provide a basis for the prevention and treatment of this condition.

3037 participants in the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, which was conducted from 2011 to 2015 were selected for this study. They were divided into four groups (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4) based on the quartiles of TyG, TyG-BMI, TyGWC and TyGWHtR in the baseline data. A Cox proportional hazard model was used to analyze the risk of MCD associated with TyG and its obesity-related combined indicators. Dose-response relationships were analyzed using restricted cubic spline regression, and the predictive ability for detection of MCD was analyzed using ROC curve.

At the end of the follow-up in 2015, 473 new cases of MCD were observed among the study population, with an incidence rate of 15.6%. After adjusting for confounding factors, the risk of MCD significantly increased in the Q4 TyG, TyG-BMI, TyG-WC and TyG-WHtR index groups compared to the Q1 groups (p<0.001 in all cases). A linear dose-response relationship was observed between the TyG index and the risk of MCD, indicating increased risks of CKD with higher TyG indexes. However, the TyG-BMI, TyG-WC and TyG-WHtR indexes exhibited nonlinear dose-response relationships with the risk of MCD (P-nonlinearity <0.0001 in all cases), indicating higher indexes were associated with higher risks of MCD. The areas under the ROC curves for the Cox regression models of TyG, TyG-BMI, TyG-WC and TyG-WHtR indices were 0.610, 0.590, 0.590 and 0.607, respectively.

The TyG, TyG-BMI, TyG-WC and TyG-WHtR indexes were found to be positively correlated with increased risk of developing MCD. Measurements and regulation of these indexes can be used to prevent and control the occurrence of MCD.