Association Between Triglyceride/High-Density Lipoprotein Ratio and Incidence Risk of Heart Failure: A Population-Based Cohort Study

Background/Objectives: The triglyceride/high-density lipoprotein (TG/HDL) ratio serves as a simple marker for insulin resistance. We investigated whether the TG/HDL ratio would be associated with the incidence risk of heart failure (HF). Methods: The study utilized data from the National Health Insurance Service-Health Screening Cohort database of South Korea from 2002 to 2019. The TG/HDL ratio was utilized as a time-dependent covariate or average value of at least three times throughout the follow-up period. The outcome of interest was incident heart failure (HF) corresponding with the International Classification of Disease, Tenth Revision code of I50. Results: A total of 293,968 individuals were included in this study. During the median 9.6 years (interquartile range 9.2–10.13), 27,852 individuals (9.47%) had a cumulative incidence of HF. Considering the multivariable time-dependent Cox proportional hazard model with the repeated measures of the TG/HDL ratio, per unit increase in the TG/HDL ratio significantly increased the risk of HF in the entire cohort (hazard ratio (HR): 1.007, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.002–1.011), diabetes mellitus (DM) cohort (HR: 1.006. 95% CI: 1.002–1.010), and non-DM cohort (HR: 1.008, 95% CI: 1.003–1.013). Regarding average TG/HDL ratio quartiles, compared to the lowest quartiles (Q1), the highest quartiles (Q4) were positively associated with the incidence risk of HF accompanied by a significant p for trend (HR: 1.114, 95% CI: 1.075–1.155) in fully adjusted multivariable analysis. Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that the repeatedly measured TG/HDL ratio was associated with the incidence risk of HF regardless of the presence of DM history in the general population.