Association between the triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index and increased blood pressure in normotensive subjects: a population-based study

BACKGROUND: Insulin resistance (IR) is an important contributor to the development of hypertension (HTN), and the triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index has been proposed as a simple, reliable marker of IR. This study investigated the association between the TyG index and blood pressure (BP) elevation in a large general population. METHODS: The study enrolled 15,721 adults with no history of cardiometabolic diseases from the 2016–2019 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Participants were classified into quartiles based on the TyG index and BP was categorized as normal BP, elevated BP, pre-HTN, and HTN. The associations of the TyG index with BP categories were assessed using multivariate multinomial logistic regression models with normal BP as the reference group. RESULTS: The mean systolic/diastolic BP and prevalence of HTN increased with the TyG index (P for trend < 0.001). The continuous TyG index had a strong dose-response relationship with increased odds of elevated BP, pre-HTN, and HTN. Compared with the lowest TyG index quartile, the highest TyG index quartile was significantly associated with higher odds of having elevated BP (odds ratio [OR], 1.52; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.24–1.87; P for trend < 0.001), pre-HTN (OR, 2.22; 95% CI, 1.95–2.53; P for trend < 0.001), and HTN (OR, 4.24; 95% CI, 3.49–5.16; P for trend < 0.001). CONCLUSION: We found that a higher TyG index was positively associated with the risk of increased BP in normal healthy individuals. This study suggests that the TyG index might serve as a potential predictor of HTN. However, further studies with larger sample sizes and various target populations in longitudinal designs are needed. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13098-022-00927-5.