ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Pediatric Endocrinology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1657912
Can the Triglyceride-Glucose Index Identify Prediabetes in children and adolescents with obesity ? A Cross-Sectional Study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Pediatrics, Henan Provincial People’s Hospital, Zhengzhou, China
- 2Fudan University School of Public Health, Shanghai, China
- 3Fudan University Key Laboratory of Public Health Safety Ministry of Education China, Shanghai, China
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Purpose: To evaluate the triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index as a biomarker for identifying prediabetes mellitus (PDM) in children and adolescents with obesity and compare its predictive ability with traditional indicators. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 213 children and adolescents with obesity aged 8 to 18 years. Key inclusion criteria included obesity defined by BMI above the 95th percentile. Diagnostic criteria were based on fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). Correlation analysis, LASSO logistic regression, logistic regression, and ROC curve analysis were performed to assess predictive performance. Results: The TyG index showed significant positive correlations with TG (r=0.751), HbA1c (r=0.422), 2hPG (r=0.387), and FPG (r=0.385) (all P<0.001). LASSO regression identified TyG, HbA1c, and HOMA-IR as key predictors. Multivariate logistic regression demonstrated that the TyG index was an independent risk factor for PDM (OR=13.287; 95% CI: 5.357–32.956; P<0.001). ROC analysis revealed an AUC of 0.776 (95% CI: 0.715–0.837) for the TyG index, with an optimal cutoff of 8.895, yielding a sensitivity of 55.1% and specificity of 85.2%, outperforming TG, FPG, and HOMA-IR. Conclusion: The TyG index is a reliable and practical marker for identifying prediabetes in pediatric populations with obesity. Its predictive performance exceeds several conventional indicators, offering clinical value for early screening and intervention.
Keywords: Children with obesity, Prediabetes mellitus, TyG index, diabetes screening, type 2 diabetes mellitus
Received: 02 Jul 2025; Accepted: 03 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Wang, Zhu, Wang, Zhang, Ma, Gao and Yu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hongxia Liu, Department of Pediatrics, Henan Provincial People’s Hospital, Zhengzhou, China
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