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Serum uric acid is an independent predictor for developing prehypertension: a population-based prospective cohort study

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 31, pages 116–120 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

Although the prevalence of prehypertension is rapidly increasing in China, the medical community has paid little attention to its prevention. Prior studies have demonstrated that uric acid directly contributes to vascular remodelling and endothelial dysfunction. However, few prospective studies have assessed the relationship between serum uric acid and prehypertension. We therefore designed a larger-scale cohort study to examine whether uric acid level is a predictive factor for developing prehypertension in adults. Participants were recruited from Tianjin Medical University General Hospital-Health Management Centre. A prospective assessment (n=15 143) was performed. Participants without a history of hypertension or prehypertension were followed up for 2 to 6 years with a median follow-up duration of 2.8 years. Serum uric acid levels and blood pressure were assessed yearly during the follow-up. Adjusted Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to assess relationships between the quintiles of uric acid levels and the incidence of prehypertension. The incidence of prehypertension was 191 per 1000 person-years. In the final multivariate models, the hazard ratios (95% confidence interval) for prehypertension across uric acid quintiles were 1.00 (reference), 0.98 (0.90–1.07), 1.01 (0.93–1.10), 1.09 (1.001–1.20) and 1.17 (1.06–1.29) (P for trend <0.001), respectively. This population-based prospective cohort study has demonstrated that uric acid level is an independent predictor for developing prehypertension.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the participants of the study and Tianjin Medical University General Hospital-Health Management Center for the possibility to perform the study. This study was supported by grants from the key technologies R&D program of Tianjin (Key Project: Nos. 11ZCGYSY05700, 12ZCZDSY20400, and 13ZCZDSY20200), the National Science and Technology Support Program (No. 2012BAI02B02), 2012 Chinese Nutrition Society (CNS) Nutrition Research Foundation—DSM Research Fund (No. 2014–071), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 81372118, 81372467 and 81302422), the Technologies development program of Beichen District of Tianjin (Nos. bcws2013–21 and bc2014–05), the technologies project of Tianjin Binhai New Area (Nos. 2013-02-04 and 2013-02-06), the Science Foundation of Tianjin Medical University (Nos. 2010KY28 and 2013KYQ24), the Key Laboratory of Public Health Safety (Fudan University), Ministry of Education (No. GW2014-5), and the National Training Programs of Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Undergraduates (No. 201510062013), China.

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Author notes

  1. L Liu and Y Gu: Co-first authors who contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Health Management Centre, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China

    L Liu, Q Zhang, H Du, H Shi, S Sun, X Wang, M Zhou, Q Jia, K Song, G Wang & K Niu

  2. Nutritional Epidemiology Institute and School of Public Health, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China

    Y Gu, C Li, G Meng, H Wu, Y Xia, X Guo, X Liu, X Bao, Q Su, L Fang, F Yu, H Yang, B Yu, G Huang & K Niu

  3. Institute of Psychology, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China

    B Yu

  4. Department of Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China

    Q Guo

  5. Collaborative Innovation Center of Non-communicable Disease, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China

    K Niu

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Correspondence to K Niu.

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Liu, L., Gu, Y., Li, C. et al. Serum uric acid is an independent predictor for developing prehypertension: a population-based prospective cohort study. J Hum Hypertens 31, 116–120 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/jhh.2016.48

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