A study recently published in Arthritis Research & Therapy provides evidence that hypertension, obesity, and diuretic use all correspond to increased risks of gout. Researchers conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of several cohort studies, focusing on adults of at least 18 years of age with hypertension, obesity, or those that used diuretics. Each of the studies analyzed contained gout as an outcome. Sample sizes analyzed ranged from 923 to 60,181, with number of gout incidences in each ranging from 43 to 1,341.
In their analysis, the researchers found that diuretics had the greatest influence on gout, with diuretic users being almost 2.5 times more likely to develop the disease. Obesity
followed, with gout prevalence being 2.24 times greater in patients with a BMI of 30 kg/m2 or higher. Patients with hypertension were found to be more than twice as likely to develop gout than patients with normal blood pressure.
Study author James A. Prior, PhD, MSc, writes that “Diuretics are perhaps the most well-known medications to be associated with gout; they raise serum uric acid levels by increasing uric acid reabsorption and decreasing uric acid secretion in the kidneys.”
Being that obesity, diuretic use, and hypertension were each found to be associated with at least a two-fold increase in risk of gout development, the authors conclude that patients that fit any of these 3 categories should be recognized by their physicians as being at a greater risk for gout. They write that they should be “provided with appropriate management and treatment options.”
Source: Healio
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