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Data show patients with gout may be at lower risk for dementia
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Patients with gout may have a lower risk for developing dementia, according to recently published results of a study of patients in Taiwan.
Researchers identified 28,769 patients with gout from Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) based on ICD-9 Clinical Modification codes documented between 2002 and 2008. Patients were compared with 114,742 control participants; both groups had a mean age of 63.5 years.
Patients with gout had a higher frequency of comorbidities such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, coronary artery disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart failure, stroke and chronic kidney disease. Seventy-five percent of the patients received at least one anti-gout medication, including Colcrys (colchicine, Takeda), allopurinol, benzbromarone, Anturane (sulfinpyrazone, Novartis) and probenecid.
Patients with gout were followed for mean 4.3 years, and the participants in the control group were followed for mean 4.4 years. During follow-up, 6,848 participants were diagnosed with dementia, including 1,214 in the group of patients with gout and 5,634 in the control group.
The incidence of dementia was 9.51 per 1,000 person-years in the group of patients with gout compared to 12.54 per 1,000 patient-years in the control group.
Adjusted for age, sex and comorbidities, the hazard ratio for developing dementia was 0.77 in patients with gout compared with the control group. Secondary analysis revealed that 1,154 patients developed vascular dementia, whereas 5,694 developed non-vascular dementia. Additionally, patients with gout had a lower risk of developing either type, according to the researchers. Sensitivity analysis showed that the hazard ratio for developing Alzheimer’s disease was 0.76 for patients with gout.
The researchers concluded their study did not prove that the lowered risk is related to potential neuroprotective effects of uric acid, but if a protective effect is uncovered, clinicians may wish to re-evaluate the use of urate-lowering therapy. - by Shirley Pulawski
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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