Abstract: Objective  To find a surrogate marker to identify insulin resistance (IR) in middle-aged and older Hui ethnic subjects in Shandong Province of China using biochemical indicators. Methods  A total of 95 men and 104 women were included in the cross-sectional study. Fasting blood samples were collected to detect blood glucose, insulin, liver enzymes and lipid profiles. IR cut-off value was 3.06 as determined using the 75th percentile of HOMA-IR values. The areas under the curve (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC) were used to compare the power of the potential markers. Results  Compared with other biochemical indicators, 1/HDL-C ratio and TG/HDL-C ratio discriminated IR much better than others, with the values of AUC being 0.720 (95% CI: 0.642-0.798) and 0.710(95% CI: 0.634-0.786),respectively. The optimal cut-off points to identify IR were 0.702 (sensitivity 69.4%, specificity 67.3%) for 1/HDL-C ratio (1.425mmol/L for HDL-C) and 1.043 (sensitivity 65.3%, specificity 66.7%) for TG/HDL-C ratio. Conclusion  HDL-C and TG/HDL-C ratio can easily identify IR in the urban middle-aged and older Hui ethnic population in Shandong Province.

Key words: Insulin resistance, Shandong Province, High-density lipoprotein cholesterol, Triglycerides/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio, Hui ethnic