Serum Uric Acid Levels and the Risk of Impaired Fasting Glucose: A Prospective Study in Adults of North China

OBJECTIVE To prospectively investigate the association between serum uric acid (SUA) level and incidence of impaired fasting glucose (IFG) in adult Chinese. METHODS We evaluated 13,328 women and 41,350 men without diabetes and IFG. The participants were classified into quintile according to baseline level of SUA. Data were analyzed to examine the association between SUA levels and the incidence of IFG. We used Cox regression models to estimate the relative risk of IFG after adjusting for known risk factors. RESULTS For men, the second quintile of SUA has the lowest cumulative incidence of IFG (29.9%); the fifth quintile of SUA has the highest cumulative incidence of IFG (35.6%). After corrected with Cox regression, the first quartile and the fourth quartile have higher cumulative incidence of IFG than the second quintile, with the HR of 1.11(1.05-1.17) and 1.07(1.01-1.13), respectively. For women, the first quartile of SUA has the lowest cumulative incidence of IFG (20.7%), while the fifth quintile of SUA has the highest cumulative incidence of IFG (30.0%). However, there is no significant difference in IFG between different quintile after adjusted with Cox regression. CONCLUSIONS The results of this prospective study suggest that there is a higher risk of developing IFG in association with low or high SUA concentrations for men. These relationships were independent of other known risk factors. There is no significant correlation in the risk of developing IFG in association with SUA concentrations for women. Analyses excluding participants with hypertension or with hyperlipidemia and analyses with participants stratified by age reached similar conclusion.