Epidemiology and prevalence of hyperuricemia among men and women in Chinese rural population: The Henan Rural Cohort Study

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the latest prevalence of hyperuricemia and influencing factors in Chinese rural population.

Methods: A survey was conducted from July 2015 to September 2017. A total of 38,855 (15,371 men and 23,484 women) subjects were recruited from the Henan Rural Cohort Study. Hyperuricemia was defined as a serum urate level of >7.0 mg/dL for men and >6.0 mg/dL for women. A meta-analysis of 19 studies that focused on hyperuricemia prevalence was performed to validate the result of the cross-sectional survey.

Results: The crude and age-standardized prevalence of hyperuricemia was 10.24% and 12.60%, respectively. The prevalence of hyperuricemia decreased in men with increasing age, but the opposite trend was observed in women. The results of meta-analysis demonstrated that hyperuricemia prevalence in Chinese rural areas was 11.7%, consistent with the result of current survey. Multivariate logistic regression revealed that overweight or obesity, hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia, hypoalphalipoproteinemia and high serum creatinine level could increase the risk of hyperuricemia, while high physical activity and fasting plasma glucose were associated with a lower risk of hyperuricemia in all participants.

Conclusion: The latest prevalence of hyperuricemia is high in rural China and is associated with multiple factors, indicating that prevention and control strategies for hyperuricemia are needed urgently.

Keywords:

• Epidemiology
• hyperuricemia
• prevalence
• rural population

Acknowledgements

The authors thank all of the participants, coordinators, and administrators for their support and help during the research. Thanks to anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions on the quality improvement of our present paper.

Author Contributions

C.J.W. conceived and designed the study. X.K.D., H.L.Z., F.W., X.T.L., K.L.Y. and R.Q.T. coordinated data collection. X.K.D., H.L.Z., F.W., X.T.L., M.W. L.W. Z.X.M. and G.Y.Z. conducted the analyses. X.K.D. and H.L.Z. wrote the manuscript. All authors have approved the final manuscript.

Clinical trial registration

The Henan Rural Cohort Study has been registered at Chinese Clinical Trial Register (Registration number: ChiCTR-OOC-15006699). See http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=11375.

Ethics approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Ethics approval was obtained from the ‘Zhengzhou University Life Science Ethics Committee’, and written informed consent was obtained for all participants (Protocol no. [2015] MEC (S128)).

Conflict of interest

None.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China [grant number 2016YFC0900803]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 81573243], [grant number U1304821], [grant number 81602925]; Henan Provincial Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars [grant number 164100510021]; Science and Technology Innovation Talents Support Plan of Henan Province Colleges and Universities [grant number 14HASTIT035]; High-level Personnel Special Support Project of Zhengzhou University [grant number ZDGD13001].