Association between triglyceride-glucose index and femoral bone mineral density in community-dwelling, nondiabetic men and women: a NHANES analysis of 1,928 US individuals.

Objective: To determine the potential association between the triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index and bone mineral density (BMD) in community-dwelling adults without diabetes using a nationally representative database from the United States (US).

Methods: Data were extracted from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2005-2010, 2013-2014, and 2017-2018. Men and postmenopausal women aged ≥50 years with complete data on femoral neck BMD, triglycerides, and fasting plasma glucose levels were eligible for inclusion. Participants with diabetes, history of malignancy, thyroid disease, underweight status, end-stage kidney disease, rheumatoid arthritis, estrogen/selective estrogen receptor modulators, bisphosphonate or bone resorption inhibitors, or missing dataset weight values were excluded. Univariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to determine the associations between low BMD, TyG index, and other study variables.

Results: A total of 1,844 participants (1,161 men and 683 women) were included, representing 31,517,106 community-dwelling individuals in the US. The mean age of the study population was 60.7 years old, and 26.7% of the men and 60.4% of the women had low bone density. In both males and females, the mean TyG index was 8.6. After adjusting for demographic, lifestyle, and clinical factors, no significant association was observed between TyG and femoral neck BMD among men (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = -0.0002, 95% confidence interval [CI]: -0.02 to 0.02) and women (aBeta = 0.005, 95% CI: -0.02 to 0.04). Similarly, no significant association was observed between TyG index and the odds for low bone density among men (aOR = 1.09, 95% CI: 0.73-1.63) and women (aOR = 0.99, 95% CI: 0.49-2.01).

Conclusions: Based on data from a large sample in the US, this study did not find an association between the TyG index and femoral neck BMD or the occurrence of low bone density in community-dwelling males and females without diabetes.