High vegetable consumption and regular exercise are associated with better quality of life in patients with gout

Abstract

Background: The Gout Impact Scale (GIS), a part of the Gout Assessment Questionnaire 2.0, is used to measure gout-specific health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Recently, GIS was translated into Korean and validated for Korean patients. Several studies on factors affecting HRQOL of patients with gout have been conducted, but few have focused on lifestyle factors. This study aimed to investigate the correlation between lifestyle habits and HRQOL in Korean patients with gout. Methods: For this study, we used data from the aftermath of Urate Lowering TheRApy in gout (ULTRA) registry, a prospective cohort of Korean patients with gout treated in multiple centers nationwide since September 2021. Participants had to be 18 years or older and meet the 2015 gout classification criteria. They were asked to fill out the GIS questionnaire in terms of their lifestyle from November 2021 to March 2023. Results: This study included 232 patients. The mean (± standard deviation) age was 55.1 ± 17.7 years, and 90.5% of patients were men. The ‘gout concern overall’ score in the GIS was significantly lower in patients who exercised less frequently and consumed soft drinks and meat, and the ‘well-being during attack’ score was significantly lower in patients who more frequently consumed vegetables and exercised. The frequency of vegetable consumption had a negative linear relationship with the ‘well-being during attack’ and ‘gout concern during attack’ scores. The frequency of exercise had a negative linear relationship with the ‘gout concern overall’ and ‘gout concern during attack’ scores. Conclusion: Certain GIS subscale scores were related to specific lifestyle habits in Korean patients with gout. Patients are encouraged to more frequently consume vegetables and exercise to improve HRQOL.