Association between waist circumference and waist-to-height ratio with insulin resistance biomarkers in normal-weight adults working in a private educational institution

Abstract

AimTo assess the association between elevated waist circumference (WC) and high waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) with insulin resistance biomarkers. MethodsWe conducted an analytical cross-sectional study in normal-weight adults. Participants were divided in two groups according to WC or WHtR levels. We considered values of WC ≥ 90 in male participants and WC ≥ 80 in adult women as elevated, and values of WHtR≥0.50 as high, for both genders. Our outcomes were high triglycerides to HDL-cholesterol (TG/HDL-C) ratio and elevated triglycerides and glucose index (TGI). We considered values of TG/HDL-C ratio ≥ 3 as high and TGI values ≥ 8.37 as elevated. We elaborated crude and adjusted Poisson generalized linear models to evaluate the proposed associations and explored the gender interaction using stratified models. We reported the prevalence ratio (PR) with their respective 95% confidence intervals (95%CI). ResultsWe analyzed 355 participants. The prevalence of elevated WC and high WHtR was 17.2% (n = 61) and 33.2% (n = 118), respectively, while the prevalence of high TG/HDL-C ratio and elevated TGI was 24.8% (n = 88) and 12.7% (n = 45), respectively. In the adjusted regression model, elevated WC was associated with high TG/HDL-C ratio only in female participants (aPR = 3.61; 95%CI: 1.59–8.20). Similarly, high WHtR was associated with high TG/HDL-C ratio in women (aPR = 2.54; 95%CI:1.08–5.97). We found an association with statistically marginal significance between elevated WC and elevated TGI in women (aPR = 1.54; 95%CI: 0.95–2.50); as well as for the association between high WHtR and elevated TGI in male participants (aPR = 1.87; 95%CI: 1.00–3.50). ConclusionElevated WC and high WHtR were associated with a high TG/HDL-C ratio in women. It is necessary to perform prospective follow-up studies in the Peruvian population in order to corroborate our results.