Hypouricemia and Mortality Risk in the US General Population

The most recent European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) recommendations for gout advise against maintaining a serum urate (SU) level of <3 mg/dl for prolonged periods of time. While several Asian cohort studies have shown higher rates of mortality in individuals with extremely low SU levels, data from non-Asian cohort studies are scarce, and the relationship between hypouricemia, cardiovascular risk, and mortality remains unclear.

Using data collected from the 1988-1994 and 1999-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), we examined the relationship between SU level and overall and cause-specific mortality in 41,807 adults in the US. We calculated multivariable hazard ratios (HRs) that were compared to a referent SU level of 5-6 mg/dl for SU categories <4, 4-5, 6-7, 7-8, and >8 mg/dl in men and SU categories <3, 3-4, 4-5, 6-7, and >7 mg/dl in women.

A higher mortality risk was not observed in women who had an SU level of <3 mg/dl (HR 1.09 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.92-1.28]). A 28% higher mortality risk was observed in men who had an SU level of <4 mg/dl (HR 1.28 [95% CI 1.13-1.45]), with a nearly three-times higher mortality risk from diabetes mellitus also noted (HR 2.89 [95% CI 1.59-5.23]), but no increase in mortality from any other specific cause.

We found no long-term excess mortality risk among American women with SU levels as low as <3 mg/dl, a finding which is incompatible with the notion of a causal relationship between hypouricemia and premature mortality in women. We found excess all-cause mortality and diabetes mellitus-related mortality among hypouricemic American men, which may in part be attributable to the uricosuric effect of hyperglycemia in fatal uncontrolled diabetes mellitus (analogous to reverse causality).