The Risk of Cardiovascular Disease among Male and Female Participants Treated for Gout in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA)

Abstract

(1) The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) is a multi-center longitudinal cohort study designed to investigate the risk factors associated with the incidence of CVD. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of gout on incident CVD. (2) Participants reporting the use of gout-specific medications (urate lowering drugs or colchicine) were compared with non-users. Kaplan–Meier survival curves and multivariable models to control for known CV risk factors evaluated hazard ratios (HR) between participants taking gout medications versus those not taking gout medications. (3) For the 6734 participants, analyses were stratified by gender owing to a gout-gender interaction. For the 164 male and 59 female participants taking gout medications, Kaplan–Meier (unadjusted) survival curves demonstrate that participants taking gout medications have higher rates of CVD than participants not taking gout medications, particularly for women. After controlling for known CV risk factors, the adjusted HR for female participants taking gout medications was 1.79 (0.99, 3.23), p = 0.05; the adjusted HR for male participants on gout medications was 1.20 (0.81, 1.77), p = 0.36; (4) Participants treated for gout in this study have many comorbid conditions with known CVD risk factors, making it difficult to confirm the independent effect of gout on CVD. There are a paucity of data on women with gout. These findings suggest that there is a clinically meaningful and potentially greater risk of CVD among women with gout as compared to men.