Association between Serum Uric Acid and Metabolic Syndrome in Koreans

Abstract

Background: Although previous studies have highlighted the importance of serum uric acid as a risk factor of metabolic syndrome, no study has previously used a national Korean survey to examine the association between serum uric acid level and metabolic syndrome. This study aimed to investigate this association among Korean adults, to determine whether it varies by age and gender, and to identify optimal serum uric acid level cutoffs for predicting the presence of metabolic syndrome by gender and age. Methods: We included 5,758 Korean adults (aged ≥ 19 years) who participated in the seventh Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES VII-1), 2016. Logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the association between serum uric acid and the presence of metabolic syndrome. Receiver operating characteristic analyses were used to assess optimal uric acid cutoff values for predicting the presence of metabolic syndrome. Results: High serum uric acid levels were found to be associated with risk of metabolic syndrome. Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) analyses of uric acid levels for the detection of metabolic syndrome produced good performances. Women subjects had significantly higher AUC values than men subjects, but this gender difference may also have been influenced by age. Among men, AUC values of those in their 20s, 30s, or 40s were significantly higher than those in their 70s (P < 0.05). The optimal uric acid cutoff was 6.05 mg/dL for men and 4.45 mg/dL for women, and men had higher cutoffs than women in all age groups. Conclusion: Among Korean adults, serum uric acid levels were found to be strongly associated with the presence of metabolic syndrome. More importantly, our findings suggest that derived optimal cutoff values of uric acid might offer a useful means of diagnosing metabolic syndrome in clinical settings.

The Association Between Serum Uric Acid and the Cardiometabolic Phenotype Among Healthcare Workers in Azar Cohort Study

“…We assessed the relationship between SUA and the cardiometabolic phenotype in the current study, and our ndings show increasing mean values of metabolic syndrome factors, including LDL and cholesterol, in a dose-response manner corresponding to the SUA tertiles. These results are similar to the ndings of the studies carried out previously in various countries [16][17][18]. According to our ndings, the prevalence rates of MHO and MUHL were higher in the second and third tertiles compared to the rst tertile, which had the lowest SUA.…”

Serum Uric Acid and Metabolic Syndrome: a Retrospective Cohort Study

“…Compared to previous studies, this study has demonstrated an even stronger correlation between blood uric acid levels and metabolic syndrome in Koreans. Additionally, this study has indicated an optimal cutoff value for uric acid concentration, suggesting that uric acid levels could potentially be included as a component of metabolic syndrome assessments in clinical settings in the future 5…”

“…Despite these limitations, however, there has been considerable recent interest in research utilizing the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey VII, 2016 5. Studies on the relationship between uric acid concentration and metabolic syndrome are compelling.…”

Association of cystatin C levels with metabolic syndrome incidence: a nested case-control study with propensity score matching

“…Participants with MetS had higher serum uric acid levels than those in the normal group, consistent with previous findings. 23,24 Zhang et al 25 reported that a higher serum uric acid (SUA) level (within the normal range) is an independent risk factor for the incidence of MetS. However, the exact biological mechanism underlying the association between SUA and MetS remains unclear.…”