The Incidence of Hyperuricemia and Correlated Factors in Middle-Aged Japanese Men

The Incidence of Hyperuricemia and Correlated Factors in Middle-Aged Japanese Men: Noriyuki NAKANISHI, et al. Department of Social and Environmental Medicine, Course of Social Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine F2—To identify the factors responsible for increases in serum ur ic ac id (SUA), 1 ,346 hyperuricemia-free (less than 7.5 mg/dl of SUA and no medication for hyperuricemia or hypertension) Japanese male office workers aged 30 to 53 yr were followed up for seven successive years with annual examinations, with an average period of observation of 6.4 yr with a standard deviation of 1.6 yr. Subjects who were found to have become hyperuricemic (SUA levels of 7.5 mg/dl or more) or who started medication for hyperuricemia during repeat survey were defined as incidence cases. An analysis by means of the Kaplan-Meier method showed that the incidence of hyperuricemia increased significantly with increases in the body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, triglyceride level, SUA level, total protein level, white blood cell level, and alcohol intake. From the age-adjusted analysis with the Cox proportional hazards model, the total cholesterol level and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) level emerged as significant positive and negative factors for the incidence of hyperuricemia, respectively. Multivariate analysis, excluding the SUA level as a factor in the Cox proportional hazards model, indicated that the BMI, Log triglyceride level, white blood cell level, and alcohol intake were significantly positively associated with the incidence of hyperuricemia. On the other hand, age and the HbA1c level were significantly inversely associated with the incidence of hyperuricemia. When the SUA level was included as a factor in the model, BMI and alcohol intake remained as independent Received Apr 26, 1999; Accepted Aug 2, 1999 Correspondence to: N. Nakanishi, Department of Social and Environmental Medicine, Course of Social Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine F2, 2–2 Yamada-oka, Suita-shi, Osaka 565-0871, Japan factors. Furthermore, the white blood cell level was identified as marginally significant for the incidence of hyperuricemia (p=0.064). In conclusion, obesity and alcohol intake were determined to be independent predictors for the development of hyperuricemia. In addition, the white blood cell level may be a contributory factor. (J Occup Health 2000; 42: 1–7)