Epidemiology, risk factors, and lifestyle modifications for gout.docVIP

Available online /content/8/S1/S2 Review Epidemiology, risk factors, and lifestyle modifications for gout Kenneth G Saag1 and Hyon Choi2 1UAB Center for Education and Research (CERTs) on Therapeutics of Musculoskeletal Disorders, Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA 2Mary Pack Arthritis Society Chair in Rheumatology, Division of Rheumatology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA Corresponding author: Kenneth G. Saag, ksaag@ Published: 12 April 2006 This article is online at /content/8/S1/S2 ? 2006 BioMed Central Ltd Arthritis Research Therapy 2006, 8(Suppl 1):S2 (doi:10.1186/ar1907) Abstract The Rochester epidemiology study [4] has reported on the change in gout incidence over time. Comparing men and women from two cohorts – one from 1977 to 1978 and another from 1995 to 1996 – Arromdee and coworkers found that the age- and sex-adjusted annual incidence rate for primary gout in the USA rose from 20.2/100,000 persons to 45.9/100,000 persons; no change in the incidence of secondary gout related to thiazide diuretic therapy was observed. Gout has also been shown to increase somewhat linearly over a person’s lifespan. This perceived rise in gout prevalence is primarily associated with an aging population, but it is also potentially associated with a number of changing societal trends. Based on self-reported gout from the National Health Interview Survey [5], in 1992 about 2 million people were characterized as having gout. In 1996 there were increases in gout incidence of up to 4.6% in men and 2% in women among those in the higher risk age range of 65 years or older, leading to an estimated overall prevalence of between 0.5% and 1%. Gout affects more than 1% of adults in the