Gender interaction of uric acid in the development of hypertension

ABSTRACT

Aim: The present study explored the gender interaction on the risk of uric acid in the new development of hypertension.

Study Design: A longitudinal retrospective cohort.

Subjects & Methods: A total of 5,807 individuals with an average age of 38 ± 7 years old were recruited. Individuals whose blood pressure rose more than 140/90mmHg or those who newly commenced antihypertensive treatment were defined as a new onset of hypertension. Cox regression analysis was employed for the analysis.

Results: During the 10-years follow-up, 42.8% of men and 22.2% of women had developed hypertension. Factors to predict the hypertension development were male gender, older age, higher BMI, higher uric acid, and higher mean blood pressure. An association between higher uric acid levels and higher incidence of hypertension remained statistically significant in women in a multivariate model adjusted for various clinical variables (Hazard ration (HR), 1.180; 95%CI, 1.018 to 1.369), whereas such association was not found in men (HR, 1.034; 95%CI, 0.994 to 1.075). The interaction between the two genders reached statistical significance (p for interaction = 0.007).

Conclusion: Higher uric acid is associated with the incident hypertension in the both genders. Women are more susceptible to the development of hypertension than men.

KEYWORDS:

• Uric acid
• risk factor
• hypertension
• gender
• cohort

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Ms. Tomoko Tanabe and Dr. Tomoko Nakano for their excellent technical expertise. A part of this study was presented at the annual scientific meeting of the Japanese Society of Gout and Nucleic Acid Metabolism held in Tokyo, Feb 2017.

Declaration of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.