Serum Uric Acid Levels and Risk of Incident Hypertriglyceridemia: A Longitudinal Population-based Epidemiological Study.

BACKGROUND

Hypertriglyceridemia is one of lipid metabolism abnormalities; however, it is still debatable whether serum uric acid is a cause or a consequence of hypertriglyceridemia. We performed the study to investigate the longitudinal association between serum uric acid levels and hypertriglyceridemia.

METHODS

The study included 4190 subjects without hypertriglyceridemia. The subjects had annual health examinations for 8 years to assess incident hyperglyceridemia, and the subjects were divided into groups based on the serum uric acid quartile. Cox regression models were used to analyze the risk factors of development hypertriglyceridemia.

RESULTS

During follow-up, 1461 (34.9%) subjects developed hypertriglyceridemia over 8 years of follow-up. The cumulative incidence of hypertriglyceridemia was 28.2%, 29.1%, 36.9%, and 45.6% in quartile 1,2,3 and 4, respectively ( for trend <0.001). Cox regression analyses indicated that serum uric acid levels were independently and positively associated with the risk of incident hypertriglyceridemia.

CONCLUSIONS

Hypertriglyceridemia has become a serious public health problem. This longitudinal study demonstrates that high serum uric acid levels increase the risk of hypertriglyceridemia.