Background: Although dyslipidaemia may have a crucial impact on cardiovascular health in adults, there is a lack of specific data in transitional-age youth. Therefore, this study attempted to evaluate the association of dyslipidaemia with fat-to-muscle ratio (FMR), and establish FMR thresholds for diagnosing dyslipidaemia in transitional-age youth.

Methods: One thousand six hundred sixty individuals aged 16 to 24 years from the baseline of a subcohort in the Northwest China Natural Population Cohort: Ningxia Project were analysed. Anthropometric characteristics were gauged by a bioelectrical impedance analyser, and dyslipidaemia components were measured using a Beckman AU480 chemistry analyser. Additionally, this study used logistic regression to estimate the risk of dyslipidaemia based on FMR quintiles, and calculate the gender-specific ideal cut-off values of dyslipidaemia and its components by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.

Results: Of the 1660 participants, aged 19.06 ± 1.14 years, 558 males and 1102 females. The prevalence of dyslipidaemia was 13.4% and was significantly associated with FMR quintiles among all participants (P < 0.05). The ideal values of FMR in diagnosing dyslipidaemia were 0.2224 for males and 0.4809 for females, while males had a higher AUC than females (0.7118 vs. 0.6656). Meanwhile, high FMR values were significantly associated with adverse outcomes of dyslipidaemia, hypercholesterolemia and hypertriglyceridaemia (P < 0.05).

Conclusions: The FMR was positively correlated with the prevalence of dyslipidaemia. The FMR can be used as an effective body composition index for diagnosing dyslipidaemia, especially in males, and preventive strategies should be initiated in transitional-age youth to decrease obesity-related dyslipidaemia.