Serum uric acid level is not associated with osteoarthritis in Korean population: data from the Seventh Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2016

There is an ongoing debate regarding the relationship between uric acid and osteoarthritis (OA). Therefore, we sought to clarify this association using data from the Seventh Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES VII-1) 2016 in the Korean population. A total of 5842 subjects over 19years old were analyzed from the KNHANES VII-1 2016 data, which was conducted by the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. All of the statistical analyses were performed on the basis of a sampling weight that represents the entire Korean population. The data were described as case numbers with weighted percentages (%), and means with standard errors (SE). The association between OA and the serum uric acid level was statistically analyzed using univariate and multivariate logistic regression methods. A total of 669 subjects (8.6%) had OA, of which 557 were female (14.0%), and 112 male (3.0%). OA was more frequent in female than male subjects (n=557, 82.6% in women) (p<0.001). The serum uric acid level was significantly higher in subjects without OA than those with OA (p<0.001). Subgroup analysis in female subjects demonstrated that the serum uric acid level in OA was much higher than those without OA [4.48 (SE 0.05) vs. 4.34 (SE 0.02), p=0.013]. In contrast, there was no such difference in male subjects. However, the statistical significance in women was lost after adjusting for covariates (OR 0.888, 95% CI 0.785-1.005, p=0.060). The serum uric acid level was not significantly associated with OA in the Korean population, although there was a trend toward such a relationship in female subjects.