Sex-specific differences in the associations between adiposity indices and incident hyperuricemia among middle-aged and older adults: a nationwide longitudinal study

Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2024 Feb 9:15:1336471. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2024.1336471. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

Objective: Although obesity is a known risk for hyperuricemia (HUA), the associations between adiposity indices and incident HUA and whether sex-specific differences exist is still unknown. We aimed to investigate the associations between adiposity indices and incident HUA in a longitudinal study.

Methods: Data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) in 2011-2012 and 2015-2016 were used to conduct a cohort study. Participants aged ≥45 years without HUA at baseline were included in this study. Adiposity indices, including body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist-to-height ratio body roundness index (BRI), conicity index (CI), lipid accumulation product (LAP) index, waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), visceral adiposity index (VAI), and Chinese visceral adiposity index (CVAI), were calculated. Logistic analysis was used to analyze the association between adiposity indices and incident HUA risk stratified by gender. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was performed to evaluate the power of predictions for incident HUA.

Results: Of 5,873 participants aged 59.0 ± 8.7 years enrolled in this study, 578 (9.8%) participants developed HUA during the 4-year follow-up period. After adjusting for confounding variables, LAP, VAI, and CVAI showed significant association with incident HUA. BMI, WC, WHtR, BRI, and CI were significantly associated with incident HUA in women but not in men. LAP had the highest area under the curve (AUC) (0.612) followed by CVAI (0.596) in men, while CVAI had the highest AUC (0.707) followed by LAP (0.691) in women. All indices showed better predictive ability in women than in men.

Conclusion: Our findings indicated that adiposity indices were effective predictors of incident HUA and showed better predictive power in women than men. In clinical practice, adiposity indices could be used to assess and prevent incident HUA among Chinese middle-aged and older adults.

Keywords: CHARLS; adiposity indices; hyperuricemia; longitudinal study; obesity.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adiposity*
  • Aged
  • Cohort Studies
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Hyperuricemia* / complications
  • Hyperuricemia* / epidemiology
  • Longitudinal Studies
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Obesity / complications
  • Obesity, Abdominal / complications
  • Risk Factors

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was granted by the Science and Technology Research Program of Chongqing Municipal Education Commission (Grant No. KJQN202200908), National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Innovation in Traditional Chinese Medicine: Team and Talent Support Program project (No: ZYYCXTD-D-202203), Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (2023AFD138) and Key Research and Development Project of Hubei Provincial Department of Science and Technology (No.2020BCB015).