Predictive capacity of triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index for insulin resistance and cardiometabolic risk in children and adolescents: a systematic review

Abstract

Insulin resistance (IR) in childhood plays a key role in the development of metabolic changes in adulthood, therefore, it is important to diagnose it early. We aimed to investigate studies that evaluated the TyG index for prediction of IR risk and other cardiometabolic risk factors, as well as, the proposed cutoff points in childhood and adolescence. This is a systematic review elaborated according to the recommendations of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyzes (PRISMA). The search was performed in Lilacs, PubMed and CAPES Journal Portal, using the terms “TyG index OR triglyceride-glucose index OR triglyceride and glucose index AND children OR adolescent*”. Eight articles were included in this review. All were cross-sectional studies with individuals aged ≥2 and ≤20 years old, from the United States, Korea, Mexico, Brazil, and Iran. We concluded that the TyG index was positively associated with other IR prediction methods and appears to be advantageous for predicting IR risk and other cardiometabolic risk factors in children and adolescents (review registration: PROSPERO CRD42018100726).

Keywords:

• Adolescent
• biomarkers
• child
• insulin resistance

Acknowledgements

We thank CAPES Foundation, Brazil (CAPES, Finance code 001) and Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG) for granting master and doctoral scholarships for A.D.M.B., M.S.F. and L.G.S. HHM Hermsdorff has a Research Fellowship from CNPq (1D-level).