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

Aim: To assess the association between elevated waist circumference (WC)and high waist-to-height ratio (WHtR)with insulin resistance biomarkers. Methods: We 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). Results: We 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). Conclusion: Elevated 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.