Factors such as diet, alcohol consumption, and genetic predisposition have been associated with the development of gout; however, recent research has shed light on the potential role of sleep behaviors in determining gout risk. A new study conducted by researchers at the UK Biobank sought to explore the relationship between sleep patterns and the risk of gout. Published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research, the study “aimed to evaluate the relationship of sleep patterns based on a combination of 5 major sleep behaviors with the risk of new-onset gout, and to explore whether genetic risks of gout may modify this association in the general population.”
The population-based cohort study, which included 403,630 participants without gout at baseline, employed a comprehensive approach to evaluate sleep behaviors. Five major sleep behaviors were considered: chronotype (individual preference for sleep timing), sleep duration, insomnia, snoring, and daytime sleepiness. Sleep was classified into 2 categories: poor sleep, characterized by a score between 0 and 3, and healthy sleep, characterized by a score between 4 and 5.
Over a median follow-up of 12.0 years, 1.1% of the participants (4,270 individuals) developed new-onset gout. Participants with healthy sleep patterns exhibited a significantly lower risk of developing gout compared with those with poor sleep patterns. Specifically, the healthy sleep pattern was associated with a 21% reduced risk of new-onset gout (hazard ratio, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.70-0.91).
The study also explored the potential influence of genetic risks on the association between sleep patterns and gout. The results suggested that the protective effect of a healthy sleep pattern was predominantly observed in individuals with lower or intermediate genetic risks of gout. Participants with high genetic risks of gout did not experience the same reduction in risk with healthy sleep patterns.
Limitations of this study include its observational design, reliance on self-reported sleep behaviors, limited generalizability to diverse populations, lack of objective sleep measurements, potential unmeasured confounders, limited assessment of genetic risks, failure to account for gout treatment, and potential reverse causality.
According to the authors of this study, “Our results suggested that a healthy sleep pattern, including early chronotype, sleep [for 7 to 9 hours per day], never or rarely insomnia, no snoring, and no frequent excessive daytime sleepiness, was significantly associated with a lower risk of new-onset gout, especially in those with lower genetic risks of gout.”
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