Baseline and changes in serum uric acid independently predict glucose control among community-dwelling women

Elevated serum uric acid (SUA) levels are associated with glucose control. However, whether baseline and changes in SUA predict long-term follow-up glucose control [e.g., glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c)] remains unclear.

The subjects comprised 393 women aged 71 ± 8 years and 279 men aged 71 ± 10 years from a rural village. We have identified participants who underwent a similar examination 11 years prior, and subjects were divided into four groups based on the tertiles of baseline and changes in SUA, and examined the relationship between baseline and changes in SUA, and glucose control evaluated by follow-up HbA1c after 11-years.

In both genders, follow-up SUA were significantly higher in Group 4 (i.e., women: Group 4, baseline SUA ≥ 4.0 mg/dL and changes in SUA ≥ 0.8 mg/dL; men: Group 4, ≥ 5.3 mg/dL and ≥ 0.4 mg/dL) than in the other Groups, but eGFR was significantly lower. Only in women, there were significant differences among the four groups regarding follow-up HbA1c, and follow-up HbA1c was highest in Group 4. In addition, the interaction between baseline and changes in SUA (F = 5.391, p = 0.021) as well as baseline low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) (F = 13.793, p < 0.001), estimated glomerular filtration ratio (F = 10.715, p = 0.001), HbA1c (F = 118.285, p < 0.001), SUA (F = 9.457, p = 0.002), and changes in SUA (F = 7.757, p = 0.006) was a significant and independent determinant of follow-up HbA1c. Multivariate-adjusted follow-up HbA1c (p = 0.002) were significantly higher in Group 4 than the other groups.

These results suggested that combined assessment of baseline and changes in SUA provides increased information for long-term predictive glucose control, independent of other confounding factors in community-dwelling women.