Metabolically healthy obesity also has risk for hyperuricemia among Chinese general population: A cross-sectional...

The metabolically healthy obese (MHO) refers to obese individuals with a favorable metabolic profile. It is unknown whether metabolically healthy status in persons with obesity or overweight decreases the risk of hyperuricemia. This study aims to explore the association of MHO with risk of hyperuricemia.

We performed a cross-sectional study including 11,435 (5300 men and 6135 women) general population aged ≥35 years in Liaoning Province. Anthropometric measurements, laboratory examinations and self-reported information on lifestyle factors were collected by trained personnel. Metabolically healthy overweight/obesity was defined according to body mass index and ATP-III criterion of metabolically healthy status. Hyperuricemia was defined as SUA ≥7mg/dl (420mmol/L) in men or ≥6mg/dl (360mmol/L) in women. Logistic regression analyses were performed to explore the association between overweight/obesity with different metabolic status and risk of hyperuricemia.

Among total subjects, 470 (4.2%) were metabolically healthy obese (MHO) and 1567 (14.0%) were metabolically unhealthy obese (MUO). For metabolically healthy female participants, the prevalence of hyperuricemia with overweight was similar to with a normal BMI (2.5% vs. 3.1%, P=0.314). Multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that MHO (OR=2.48, 95% CI: 1.81-3.41) and MUO (OR=4.81, 95% CI: 3.97-5.83) were significantly associated with hyperuricemia. However, the odds ratio in females with metabolically healthy overweight was 0.85 (95% CI: 0.53-1.37).

Metabolically healthy might decline the risk of hyperuricemia, but overweight and obesity with metabolically healthy had also strong associations with hyperuricemia, except in females with metabolically healthy overweight.