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Hyperuricemia is independently associated with hypertension in men under 60 years in a general Chinese population

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 35, pages 1020–1028 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Hyperuricemia has been associated with hypertension, however, whether this association exists across all decades of adult life is unknown. This study aimed to assess the association between hyperuricemia and hypertension in relation to age. This retrospective cross-sectional study included a total of 22,556 adult Chinese people who attended Health Physical Examination in a Chinese hospital. Participants were aged between 18 and 95 years (mean [standard deviation], 45.4 [14.0]). Serum uric acid levels and blood pressure were measured. Associations between serum uric acid and blood pressure, and between hyperuricemia and hypertension diagnosis were analyzed using linear or logistic regression, adjusting for confounding risk factors including age, sex, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and fasting blood glucose. Sub-analysis was stratified by age and sex. Before adjustment, high serum uric acid was associated with higher systolic blood pressure (β = 0.214, P < 0.001) and higher diastolic blood pressure (β = 0.271, P < 0.001). Hyperuricemia was associated with hypertension diagnosis (OR, 1.763; 95% CI, 1.635–1.901; P < 0.001) in an unadjusted analysis. These findings remained significant after adjusting for confounding factors. Sub-analysis suggested that the association between uric acid and blood pressure was weaker in older age groups and the association between hyperuricemia and hypertension was limited to people under 60 years. Hyperuricemia was independently associated with hypertension diagnosis in men but not in women, and the independent association between hyperuricemia and hypertension only presented in men under 60 years. This study suggests that hyperuricemia is independently associated with hypertension in Chinese men under 60 years.

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Fig. 1: Uric acid and blood pressure over decades of adult life.
Fig. 2: Blood pressure increases when the concentration of uric acid rises.

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Funding

This work was funded by the Shandong Natural Fund (ZR2015HL008), Shandong Province, China. Yutang Wang is supported by a grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (1062671). JG holds a Practitioner Fellowship from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC; 1117061) and a Senior Clinical Research Fellowship from the Queensland Government, Australia.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Tingting Qian, Hui Sun

  2. These authors jointly supervised this work: Yutang Wang, Guang Yang

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geriatric Medicine, School of Clinical Medicine, Weifang Medical University, Weifang, Shandong, China

    Tingting Qian

  2. Department of Gerontology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, Shandong Province, China

    Hui Sun, Qun Xu & Guang Yang

  3. The Health Physical Examination Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, Shandong Province, China

    Xujuan Hou, Wenqi Hu & Guang Zhang

  4. Centre for Cardiovascular Biology and Disease Research and Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Microbiology, School of Life Sciences, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, 3086, Australia

    Grant R. Drummond & Christopher G. Sobey

  5. Discipline of Life Sciences, School of Science, Psychology and Sport, Federation University Australia, Ballarat, VIC, 3350, Australia

    Fadi J. Charchar & Yutang Wang

  6. Queensland Research Centre for Peripheral Vascular Disease, College of Medicine and Dentistry, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia

    Jonathan Golledge

  7. Department of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, The Townsville University Hospital, Townsville, QLD, 4814, Australia

    Jonathan Golledge

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Qian, T., Sun, H., Xu, Q. et al. Hyperuricemia is independently associated with hypertension in men under 60 years in a general Chinese population. J Hum Hypertens 35, 1020–1028 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41371-020-00455-7

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