Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 May 29:11:e15463.
doi: 10.7717/peerj.15463. eCollection 2023.

Assessment of eight insulin resistance surrogate indexes for predicting metabolic syndrome and hypertension in Thai law enforcement officers

Affiliations

Assessment of eight insulin resistance surrogate indexes for predicting metabolic syndrome and hypertension in Thai law enforcement officers

Rujikorn Rattanatham et al. PeerJ. .

Abstract

Police officers in Thailand have an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes, possibly due to a high prevalence of hypertension and metabolic syndrome (MetS). In this study, the researchers aimed to understand the relationship between surrogate markers of insulin resistance (IR) and the prevalence of MetS and hypertension in Thai police officers. The study included 7,852 police officer participants, of which 91.8% were men with an average age of 48.56 years. The prevalence of hypertension and MetS were found to be 51.1% and 30.8%, respectively, and the participants with MetS and hypertension were older compared to the regular group. The study looked at eight IR indices, including markers such as atherogenic index of plasma (AIP), lipid accumulation product (LAP), metabolic score for insulin resistance (METS-IR), triglyceride glucose (TyG) index, TyG index with body mass index (TyG-BMI), TyG index with waist circumference (TyG-WC), the ratio of triglycerides to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (TG/HDL-c), and visceral obesity index (VAI). These indices were found to be positively correlated with waist circumference, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), fasting plasma glucose (FPG), and triglycerides (TG), while being negatively correlated with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c). In addition, the multiple regression analysis showed that higher quartiles of all IR indices were significantly associated with increased risks of MetS and hypertension. Interestingly, the IR indices were more accurate in predicting MetS (ranges 0.848 to 0.892) than traditional obesity indices, with the AUC difference at p < 0.001. Among the IR indices, TyG-WC performed the best in predicting MetS (AUC value 0.892 and Youden index 0.620). At the same time, TyG-BMI had the highest accuracy in predicting hypertension (AUC value of 0.659 and Youden index of 0.236). In addition, this study found that when two markers were combined for diagnosing metabolic syndrome, a significantly improved predictive value for disease risk was observed, as evidenced by higher AUC and Yoden index. Moreover, the IR indices were found to have higher predictive power for MetS and hypertension in younger police personnel (age < 48 years) than older personnel. In conclusion, this study highlights the importance of reducing cardiovascular disease risks among law enforcement personnel as a strategic goal to improve their health and wellness. The findings suggest that IR indices may be valuable tools in predicting MetS and hypertension in law enforcement personnel and could potentially aid in the early identification and prevention of law enforcement personnel health conditions.

Keywords: Hypertension; Insulin resistance surrogate index; Law enforcement officer; Metabolic syndrome; Police officer.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Correlation between insulin resistance surrogate and metabolic component.
#For the non-parametric used Spearman’s correlation. All correlation results had a p-value < 0.001.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Receiver operating characteristic analysis for predicting metabolic syndrome.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Receiver operating characteristic analysis for predicting hypertension.

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Abbasi F, Reaven GM. Comparison of two methods using plasma triglyceride concentration as a surrogate estimate of insulin action in nondiabetic subjects: triglycerides × glucose versus triglyceride/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Metabolism-clinical and Experimental. 2011;60(12):1673–1676. doi: 10.1016/j.metabol.2011.04.006. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Aekplakorn W, Puckcharern H, Satheannoppakao W. The National Health Examination Survey of Thailand 2019–2020. Bangkok: Aksorn Graphic and Design Publishing; 2021.
    1. Ahn N, Baumeister SE, Amann U, Rathmann W, Peters A, Huth C, Thorand B, Meisinger C. Visceral adiposity index (VAI), lipid accumulation product (LAP), and product of triglycerides and glucose (TyG) to discriminate prediabetes and diabetes. Scientific Reports. 2019;9(1):9693. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-46187-8. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Aslan Çin NN, Yardımcı H, Koç N, Uçaktürk SA, Akçil Ok M. Triglycerides/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol is a predictor similar to the triglyceride-glucose index for the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome using International Diabetes Federation criteria of insulin resistance in obese adolescents: a cross-sectional study. Journal of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism. 2020;33(6):777–784. doi: 10.1515/jpem-2019-0310. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Barrett BJ, Fardy JM. Evaluation of diagnostic tests. In: Parfrey PS, Barrett BJ, editors. Clinical Epidemiology: Practice and Methods. New York, NY: Springer US; 2021. pp. 319–333.

Publication types

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Medical Technology Clinic (WU-MeT), Walailak University, Thailand. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.