Association between different insulin resistance surrogates and osteoarthritis: a cross-sectional study from NHANES 1999-2018.

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated a relationship between prevalence of Osteoarthritis (OA) and insulin resistance (IR). The correlation between IR surrogates indices and gold standard tool for IR evaluation (Hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp (HIEC)) have been well demonstrated. However, few studies evaluated the relationship between IR surrogates and OA. The aim of this study is to investigate the potential associations between different IR surrogates (the homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) index, the triglyceride glucose (TyG) index, the triglyceride glucose with body mass (TyG-BMI) index, the triglyceride glucose with waist circumference (TyG-WC) index, and the triglyceride glucose with the ratio of waist circumference divided by height (TyG-WtHR) index) and OA.

Methods: This study used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to assess the associations of different IR surrogates with OA.

Results: After adjusting for covariates, TyG-BMI index (OR = 1.006, 95% CI [1.004, 1.007], P < 0.0001), TyG-WC index (OR = 1.002, 95% CI [1.002, 1.003], P < 0.0001) and TyG-WtHR index (OR = 1.425, 95%CI [1.292,1.572], P < 0.0001) still showed robust positive correlation with IR. The risk of OA in the fourth quartile of the TyG-BMI index, TyG-WC index, and TyG-WtHR index are 2.634-fold, 2.651-fold, and 2.433-fold higher than that in the first quartile, respectively.

Conclusions: Compared to the HOMA-IR index and the TyG index, the association between the TyG-BMI, TyG-WC, and TyG-WtHR indices and OA is closer and more stable. The TyG-WtHR index has the highest accuracy in predicting OA, followed by the TyG-WC and TyG-BMI index.