Change in Serum Uric Acid is a Useful Predictor of All-Cause Mortality among Community-Dwelling Persons

Abstract

There is limited research on the association between longitudinal variability in serum uric acid (SUA) and all-cause mortality in the general population, although recent studies have suggested that changes in SUA are associated with all-cause mortality in adults. This study aims to examine the association between percentage change in SUA (%dSUA = 100 × (cohort 2 SUA − cohort 1 SUA)/(time × cohort 1 SUA) and all-cause mortality. This study is based on 1,301 participants, of whom 543 were male (63 ± 11 years) and 758 were female (63 ± 9 years). We obtained adjusted relative risk estimates for all-cause mortality and used a Cox proportional hazards model, adjusted for possible confounders, to determine the hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of %dSUA. Of all the participants, 79 (6.1%) were deceased, and of these, 45 were male (8.3%) and 34 were female (4.5%). The multivariable-adjusted HRs (95% CI) for all-cause mortality for the first, second to fourth (reference), and fifth %dSUA quintiles were 3.79 (1.67–8.48), 1.00, and 0.87 (0.29–2.61) for male participants and 4.00 (1.43–11.2), 1.00, and 1.19 (0.46–3.05) for female participants, respectively. Participants with a body mass index of <22 kg/m2 had a significantly higher HR, forming a U-shaped curve for the first (HR, 7.59; 95% CI, 2.13–27.0) and fifth quintiles (HR, 2.93; 95% CI, 1.05–8.18) relative to the reference. Percentage change in SUA is independently and significantly associated with future all-cause mortality among community-dwelling persons.