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Survey: Patients with gout experienced eight painful gout attacks per year
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According to a recent CreakyJoints online survey of 1,000 patients with gout, respondents noted they experienced an average of eight painful gout attacks per year and more than half reported attacks that lasted at least 3 days.
“Medically speaking, patients who have more than two gout attacks per year and persistently high uric acid levels above 6 mg/dL are considered to have uncontrolled gout and need to talk to their doctor right away,” Theodore Fields, MD, from Hospital for Special Surgery, said in a press release. “Patients surveyed reported an average of eight gout attacks per year, a quarter of these patients said they did not have their uric acid tested in the past year and only one in 10 knew what their target serum uric acid number should be. There is much work to be done to educate patients with gout and their caregivers to help get the patients’ gout symptoms under control.”
According to the release, the survey found gout impaired the ability to walk, climb stairs or sleep in 76% of patients surveyed. In addition, more than 66% of patients and 90% of the 500 caregivers surveyed noted they accept gout attacks as part of living with the disease. The survey also showed 44% of mothers with gout agreed with the statement that gout attacks are more painful than childbirth and 93% of patients with gout reported gout pain to be debilitating and a serious quality of life issue. Employed patients reported missing an average of 6.3 work days in the past year due to gout attacks, and their caregivers reported they missed an average of 5 work days due to aiding patients with gout.
Also, 44% of patients and 41% of caregivers reported gout attacks negatively affected their sex life. Moreover, 35% of patients and 34% of caregivers agreed with the statement that hereditary factors contribute significantly to gout.
Furthermore, the survey demonstrated 64% of patients reported feeling responsible for causing their condition due to diet or alcohol consumption; 63% of patients believed their diet was the main contributor to their elevated serum uric acid levels. The survey revealed that 14% of patients and 9% of caregivers correctly cited overproduction and underexcretion of uric acid as causes of gout, and 11% of patients and 9% of caregivers correctly responded that the target serum uric acid level should be less than 6 mg/dL.
About 25% of patients reported they had not had their serum uric acid level tested within the last year. Greater than 80% of patients and caregivers stated regular monitoring of serum uric acid is important, and 50% of patients said they did not report all their gout attacks to their doctor.
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