Prevalence of Insulin Resistance and Identifying HOMA1-IR and HOMA2-IR Indexes in the Middle Black Sea Region of Turkey

Background: Insulin resistance (IR) is one of the most important etiological risk factors in the development of diabetes. However, there is no clear data regarding the prevalence of IR in the country.

Objective: This study evaluates the prevalence of IR and identifies the optimal threshold values for the HOMA indexes in Turkey.

Methods: This cross-sectional, population-based survey includes 2013 participants aged 20-84 years. The values of the anthropometric measurements and laboratory analysis were recorded. The 90 percentile in the non-obese and non-diabetic population was accepted as cut-off values for IR.

Results: The optimal threshold values for IR were 2.46 in HOMA1-IR and 1.40 in HOMA2-IR. Using the HOMA2-IR method, the overall prevalence of IR was 33.2%. The IR prevalence was higher in women (35.6%) compared to men (30.1%) [p=0.008]. There was a higher IR prevalence in men living in urban areas (p=0.001), not in women. The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that gender, serum glucose level, serum levels of triglycerides and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, bodymass index and income status were associated with insulin resistance.

Conclusion: The cut-off values of HOMA1-IR and HOMA2-IR were determined in this study and we believe that these findings will be helpful to clinicians in the fight against health problems such as diabetes.