BACKGROUND & AIMS: We aimed to estimate appropriate cutoff of hypertriglyceridemic waist (HTGW) designated for impaired fasting glucose (IFG)/diabetes mellitus (DM) and to evaluate the association between HTGW and fasting glucose, IFG and DM, respectively. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey in a nationally representative sample of 15,540 Chinese adults aged 35-74 years was conducted during 2000-2001. RESULTS: Appropriate cutoffs of HTGW designated both for IFG and DM was triglyceride> or =110mg/dl and waist circumference> or =75cm both among men and women. Overall 35.4% of men as well as 33.6% of women had HTGW. Moreover 30.8%, 7.2% of men with HTGW as well as 30.0%, 9.7% of women had IFG and DM, respectively. Furthermore multivariate models revealed that adjusted odds ratios of IFG and DM were 2.7 (1.7, 2.5) and 2.6 (1.8, 3.8) for men with HTGW as well as 1.7 (1.4, 2.1) and 3.6 (2.5, 5.1) for women, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: As the phenotype of visceral obesity HTGW was more common among Chinese adults. Global lifestyle modification should be targeted at adults with HTGW to prevent the premature incidence of DM and reduce the burden in future in China.