A Cohort Study of Hyperuricemia in Middle-aged South Korean Men

Few prospective studies have assessed the incidence and determinants of asymptomatic hyperuricemia in free-living populations. The authors' goals in this study were to estimate the incidence of hyperuricemia and quantify the dose-response relations of specific risk factors with hyperuricemia in middle-aged South Korean male workers. The authors followed a cohort of 10,802 hyperuricemia-free men aged 30-59 years, examining them annually or biennially at a university hospital in Seoul, South Korea, from 2002 to 2009. A parametric Cox model and a pooled logistic regression model were used to estimate adjusted hazard ratios for incident hyperuricemia (defined as serum uric acid level >= 7.0 mg/dL) according to prespecified risk factors. During 51,210.6 person-years of follow-up, 2,496 men developed hyperuricemia (incidence rate = 48.7 per 1,000 person-years, 95% confidence interval: 46.8, 50.7). The incidence of hyperuricema increased across baseline categories of age, body mass index, alcohol intake, blood pressure, metabolic syndrome, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, triglycerides, gamma-glutamyltransferase, and fatty liver, whereas fasting glucose, estimated glomerular filtration rate, and high density lipoprotein cholesterol levels were inversely associated with incident hyperuricemia. Development of hyperuricemia, a very common outcome among apparently healthy South Korean men, was predicted by a variety of cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors, suggesting that lifestyle modification may help reduce the incidence of hyperuricemia.