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Association between the triglyceride–glucose index and chronic kidney disease in adults

  • Nephrology - Original Paper
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Abstract

Background

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is characterized as a progressive dysfunction of the kidney, and it might have a close relationship with insulin resistance. We utilized the triglyceride–glucose (TyG) index, a reliable marker of insulin resistance, to evaluate the association between the TyG index and CKD in adults from the general population.

Methods

This was a cross-sectional study obtaining data from the 2015–2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR) served as kidney function indicators. We defined CKD as the existence of either low eGFR (eGFR < 60 mL/min/1.73 m2 BSA) or albuminuria (UACR > 30 mg/g). Multivariate regressions, correlated subgroup analyses, and interaction terms were performed in this study.

Results

For 4361 recruited participants, the mean TyG index was 8.60 ± 0.68, and the prevalence of CKD was 13.35%. Participants with a higher TyG index showed a higher UACR level (β = 25.10, 95% CI: 6.76, 43.44, P = 0.0074) and higher levels of CKD (OR = 1.34, 95% CI: 1.13, 1.59, P = 0.0006). The positive relationship between the TyG index and CKD became stronger and remained significant in the overweight (OR = 1.61, 95% CI: 1.18, 2.20, P = 0.0027) and obese (OR = 2.48, 95% CI: 1.95, 3.15, P < 0.0001) groups and in people with diabetes (OR = 1.94, 95% CI: 1.46, 2.56, P < 0.0001).

Conclusions

Higher TyG index was strongly associated with a higher UACR level and higher values of albuminuria and CKD, which might be useful in kidney function screening especially among people in disadvantageous socioeconomic conditions with no availability for direct measurement of kidney function. However, more well-designed studies are still needed to validate this relationship.

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Availability of data and materials

Data described in the manuscript, codebook, and analytic code will be made publicly and freely available without restriction at www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Guoxue Alley 37, Chengdu, 610041, Sichuan, China

    Nuozhou Liu & Jiaxing Tan

  2. West China School of Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China

    Nuozhou Liu, Chang Liu, Zhan Qu & Jiaxing Tan

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Contributions

Conceptualization: NL and JT. Methodology: NL and CL. Formal analysis and investigation: NL, CL, JT and ZQ. Writing—original draft preparation: NL, CL and ZQ. Writing—review and editing: JT. Funding acquisition: none. Resources: NL. Supervision: JT.

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Correspondence to Jiaxing Tan.

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All the authors have declared no competing interest.

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All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (5). Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Liu, N., Liu, C., Qu, Z. et al. Association between the triglyceride–glucose index and chronic kidney disease in adults. Int Urol Nephrol 55, 1279–1289 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11255-022-03433-9

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