Association between high-fasting insulin levels and metabolic syndrome in non-diabetic middle-aged and elderly populations: a community-based study in Taiwan

OBJECTIVES: We aimed to determine the association between fasting insulin (FI) levels and metabolic syndrome (MetS) in non-diabetic middle-aged and elderly adults in a community in Taiwan. DESIGN: Cross-sectional observational study. SETTING: Community-based investigation in Guishan township of northern Taiwan. PARTICIPANTS: Our study included adults aged 50 years and above during community health examinations between January and October 2014. People with diabetes mellitus were excluded. A total of 321 people were enrolled. OUTCOME MEASURES: We divided participants according to tertiles of FI as low, medium and high levels. Pearson correlation was assessed between insulin level and each of the diagnostic components of metabolic syndrome (MetS-DCs) with adjustment of age. The prevalence of MetS-DCs based on tertiles of FI were studied and analysed by Cochran–Armitage trend test. The risk for prevalence of MetS in the middle and high insulin group as compared with the low insulin group were assessed by multivariate logistic regression with adjustments for age, gender, smoking, body mass index (BMI), hypertension and hyperlipidaemia. Youden Index was performed for the optimised cut-off value. RESULTS: Our results showed positive correlation of FI level with systolic blood pressure, waist circumference, fasting plasma glucose and triglyceride levels, while negative correlation was shown with high-density lipoprotein (P<0.001). The prevalence of each MetS-DCs increased as a trend while FI levels increased (P<0.001). OR (95% CI) of MetS was 5.04 (2.15 to 11.81) for high insulin groups compared with the low insulin group after adjusting confounders (P<0.001). Area under receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) curve (AUC) was 0.78, and cut-off value 7.35 μU/mL for FI was obtained (sensitivity: 0.69; specificity: 0.77). CONCLUSIONS: Middle-aged and elderly non-diabetic people with increased FI are associated with a higher prevalence of MetS in the community in Taiwan. Furthermore, FI is an independent risk factor of MetS in this study population.