Utility of the triglycerides/HDL cholesterol ratio in older adult patients in Colombia
Authors: Caceres Mendez E , Murgueitio Guzman C , Beltran Espana J , Garcia Pena A , Diaz Brochero C 
Published: October 2024

Introduction

Alterations in lipid metabolism are responsible for atherogenesis and an increased risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The triglycerides to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (TG/HDL-C) is used to assess the risk of cardiovascular diseases; however, it has not been evaluated in older adults. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the TG/HDL-C ratio in elderly patients and analyze its correlation and discriminatory capacity with cardiovascular risk factors according to data from the SABE Colombia survey.

Purpose

Describe the sociodemographic characteristics, cardiovascular history, lifestyle, and cardiovascular risk score in the older adult population included in the SABE Colombia Study.Describes the distribution of triglyceride levels, cholesterol, and the TAG-HDL ratio in the older adult population included in the SABE Colombia Study.

Evaluate the relationship between the TAG/HDL Cholesterol Index and cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension, prediabetes, type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease

Determine if there is a correlation and the degree of correlation between the TAG/HDL Cholesterol ratio and variables related to higher cardiovascular risk and stablish cutoff points of the triglyceride to HDL cholesterol ratio as indicators of the onset of risk factors

Materials and Methods

Cross-sectional study in adults aged 60 years and older included in the national SABE Colombia survey (National Survey of Health, Well-being, and Ageing conducted in Colombia in 2015), which included 244 municipalities from all departments of the country. A correlation test was performed to assess the presence and degree of correlation between the TAG/HDL index and cardiovascular risk factors, and ROC curve analysis was conducted to evaluate the performance of the TAG/HDL index in identifying risk factors.

Results

A total of 23,694 patients with the necessary information for the study were included. The median age was 69 years, 57.3% were women, and 34.3% were of white race. 23.5% had hypertension, and 16.4% had diabetes mellitus. 13.4% had a history of cardiovascular disease, and 2.5% had cerebrovascular disease. While the specific correlation between the index and different cardiovascular risk factors is generally low to moderate, good discriminatory capacity was found for diabetes and metabolic syndrome with the following values: diabetes, with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.871 and a cut-off point of 9.17; and for metabolic syndrome, the AUC was 0.840, with a cut-off point of 8.81.

Conclusions

Our findings show that the TG/HDL ratio has intermediate correlation for different cardiovascular risk factors; however, it has excellent predictive ability for the presence of diabetes and metabolic syndrome. These findings are very useful in the clinical evaluation, screening, and detection of cardiovascular risk factors in the population aged 60 years and older in Colombia.Scatter plots of TAG/HDL ratio comparedROC curves for diabetes and metabolic s