High TG/HDL ratio suggests a higher risk of metabolic syndrome among an elderly Chinese population: a cross-sectional study

Objectives: To investigate the relationship between triglyceride/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (TG/HDL-C) ratio and metabolic syndrome in the elderly population of China, and to determine the best critical value of TG/HDL-C in higher risk of metabolic syndrome in this population.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: Our study was conducted in a community physical examination centre in Wuhan, China between 1 January 2016 and 31 December 2016.

Participants: The physical examination data from 1267 elderly people (aged over 65 years) in the community were analysed in this study. The average age of the study participants was 71.64±5.605 years.

Primary outcome measures: Correlation between the TG/HDL-C ratio and metabolic syndrome; the optimum cut-off of the TG/HDL-C ratio for the prediction of metabolic syndrome.

Results: The TG/HDL-C ratio showed a significant positive correlation with metabolic syndrome (r=0.420, p<0.001) in the elderly Chinese population. Binary logistic regression analysis showed that the TG/HDL-C ratio was an independent risk factor for metabolic syndrome (OR=3.07 (95% CI: 2.402 to 3.924), p<0.001) after adjusting for blood pressure, blood glucose, age, sex and body mass index. The receiver operating characteristic curves of TG/HDL-C ratio and metabolic syndrome showed that in the elderly population, a TG/HDL-C ratio of 1.49 can be used as the critical value for a higher risk of metabolic syndrome. At this value, the specificity and sensitivity of the measure were optimal (80.8% and 72.4%, respectively).

Conclusion: In this study, we found a significant correlation between TG/HDL-C ratio and metabolic syndrome. And high TG/HDL ratio suggests a higher risk of metabolic syndrome among an elderly Chinese population.