Increased risk of adhesive capsulitis among patients with gout: A nationwide population-based matched-cohort study

The pathophysiology of adhesive capsulitis (AC) is uncertain. We noted patients with gout seemed to have higher incidence rates of AC than other people in our clinic. We did not know the true relationship between gout and AC because there are no published reports so far. The aim of this study is to verify the risk of developing AC following gout exposure.

The authors used the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan to select 39 094 subjects with newly diagnosed gout and randomly extracted 78 188 matched control subjects. All of the subjects in study and control groups were followed until the event of AC. Cox proportional hazard regression analyses were performed to evaluate the subsequent risk of AC.

There was significance since the 8th year of tracking that patients with gout had a higher risk for AC (log-rank test P < .001). Cox regression showed the adjusted hazard ratio of developing AC for patients with gout was 1.71 (95% CI = 1.451-2.565, P < .001) than the control group. Stratified analysis showed that gout patients have a higher risk for AC regardless of diabetes mellitus, stroke or carotid artery disease (P < .05).

This study showed that gout is an independent risk factor for developing AC.