Association between the triglyceride/high-density lipoprotein (TG/HDL) ratio and incidence of gout: A nationwide cohort study.

INTRODUCTION

The global burden of gout, a severe and painful arthralgia, is of note and is expected to increase in the future. We aimed to investigate the association between the triglyceride/high-density lipoprotein (TG/HDL) ratio, a simple and validated biomarker for insulin resistance, and the incidence of gout in a longitudinal setting in the general population.

METHODS

Our study was conducted using the National Health Insurance Service-Health Screening Cohort database of Republic of Korea (2002-2019). We included 300,107 participants who had no previous history of gout and had data for more than three repeated measurements of the triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index. The incidence of gout was determined using at least two or more claims of the ICD-10 code M10.

RESULTS

During a median 9.62 years (interquartile range 8.72-10.53), 14,116 individuals (4.72%) had a reported incidence of gout. In a fully adjusted multivariable time-dependent Cox proportional hazards model with repeated measures of the TyG index, a unit increase in the index significantly increased the risk of gout in the entire cohort (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.150, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.116-1.184). In a multivariable Cox proportional model of average TyG index quartiles, comparison of the lowest (Q1) and highest quartiles (Q4) indicated a significant positive association with the incidence of gout (HR: 1.326, 95% CI: 1.260-1.397). This association was non-linear (J-shape) when assessing the entire cohort and the diabetes and non-diabetes cohorts.

CONCLUSION

Our study demonstrated that increased TyG index was associated with an incidence risk of gout in the general population. Additionally, this association was non-linear (J-shape) not only in the entire cohort, but also in diabetes mellitus and non-diabetes mellitus cohorts. The TyG index may be an important predictor of gout.