Association of the triglyceride-glucose index with weight-adjusted appendicular lean mass in Chinese adolescents aged 12–18 years old

Abstract

There is no study exploring the association between triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index and skeletal muscle mass in Chinese adolescents. Therefore, the objective of this study is to explore the association between TyG index and appendicular lean mass (ALM) in Chinese adolescents. In this study, 1336 adolescents (805 boys, 60.25%) aged 12–18 years in China were randomly selected through a stratified cluster sampling. According to the tertiles of TyG index, we separated all participants into three groups, and LM was measured by Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis. The TyG index was negatively related to ALM/weight in Chinese adolescents whether stratified by gender (boys: β = − 0.293; girls: β = − 0.195; all P < 0.001). After adjusting for age and BMI, a significant correlation between the TyG index and ALM/weight was observed only in boys (β = − 0.169, P = 0.001). The highest TyG index tertile was significantly associated with low ALM/weight after adjusting for all covariates in the full sample (OR = 3.04, 95% CI 1.12–8.26, P = 0.029) and boys (OR = 4.68, 95% CI 1.22–17.95, P = 0.025) only in overweight/obese group. Our findings suggested elevated levels of TyG index may be a risk factor of low ALM/weight in Chinese adolescents, especially in boys.