Abstract Background Previous studies have demonstrated a relationship between prevalence of Osteoarthritis (OA) and insulin resistance (IR). The correlation between IR surrogates indices and gold standard tool for IR evaluation (Hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp (HIEC)) have been well demonstrated. However, few studies evaluated the relationship between IR surrogates and OA. The aim of this study is to investigate the potential associations between different IR surrogates (the homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) index, the triglyceride glucose (TyG) index, the triglyceride glucose with body mass (TyG-BMI) index, the triglyceride glucose with waist circumference (TyG-WC) index, and the triglyceride glucose with the ratio of waist circumference divided by height (TyG-WtHR) index) and OA. Methods This study used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to assess the associations of different IR surrogates with OA. Results After adjusting for covariates, TyG-BMI index (OR = 1.006, 95% CI [1.004, 1.007], P