Serum uric acid (SUA) elevation has been previously related to impaired fasting glucose and type 2 diabetes. The present study was comprehensive to examine the associations between SUA and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) in Chinese adults. For this purpose, data were collected from a community-based health examination survey conducted in Central China; 2-h glucose (OGTT) and SUA were measured in 1956 men and women. In multivariate models, SUA levels were significantly associated with an increasing trend of 2-h glucose (OGTT) (P for trend < 0.0001). The odds ratios (OR; 95 % CI) of IGT across increasing quartiles of SUA were 1.0, 1.354 (0.948-2.087), 1.337 (0.959-2.251), and 2.192 (1.407-3.416), after adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, waist circumference, fasting insulin, blood pressure, serum lipids, serum creatinine, and estimated glomerular filtration rate. (P for trend = 0.001). In addition, we found an additive pattern between SUA and triglyceride (TG; P = 0.038) or between SUA and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C; P = 0.041) in relation to IGT. SUA was related to IGT in the Chinese adults, independent of other conventional metabolic risk factors. TG and LDL-C might modify the associations.
Keywords: Impaired glucose tolerance; Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol; Serum uric acid; Triglyceride.