Relationship between bone mineral density and hyperuricemia in obesity: A cross-sectional study

Background: Obesity is an increasingly severe global public health issue. This study aims to estimate the cross-sectional association between bone mineral density (BMD) and hyperuricemia (HU) in obesity.

Method: A total of 275 obese subjects (126 men and 149 women) participated in this cross-sectional study. Obesity was diagnosed as body mass index (BMI) ≥28 kg/m2, whereas HU was defined as the blood uric acid level of 416 μmol/L in men and 360 μmol/L in women. The BMD of the lumbar spine and right hip was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). The multivariable logistic regressions were employed to examine the relationship between BMD and HU in obesity, with the adjustment of gender, age, fasting blood glucose, fasting insulin, homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein, high-density lipoprotein, creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), cigarette smoking, and alcohol drinking status.

Result: The overall prevalence of HU was 66.9% in this obese population. The mean age and BMI of this population were 27.9 ± 9.9 years and 35.2 ± 5.2 kg/m2, respectively. The multivariable-adjusted OR (the highest vs. lowest BMD quartile) demonstrated a negative relationship between BMD and HU in total (OR = 0.415, 95%CI: 0.182–0.946; p = 0.036), L1 (OR = 0.305, 95%CI: 0.127–0.730; p = 0.008), L2 (OR = 0.405, 95%CI: 0.177–0.925; p = 0.032), and L3 (OR = 0.368, 95%CI: 0.159–0.851; p = 0.020) lumbar vertebrae. In the subgroup analysis for the male population, the BMD was also negatively associated with HU in total (OR = 0.077, 95%CI: 0.014–0.427; p = 0.003), L1 (OR = 0.019, 95%CI: 0.002–0.206; p = 0.001), L2 (OR = 0.161, 95%CI: 0.034–0.767; p = 0.022), L3 (OR = 0.186, 95%CI: 0.041–0.858; p = 0.031), and L4 (OR = 0.231, 95%CI: 0.056–0.948; p = 0.042) lumbar vertebrae. However, such findings did not exist in women. In addition, there was no significant relationship between hip BMD and HU in obesity.

Conclusion: Our results showed that the lumbar BMD was negatively associated with HU in obesity. However, such findings only existed in men, rather than women. In addition, no significant relationship between hip BMD and HU existed in obesity. Due to the limited sample size and nature of the cross-sectional design, further large prospective studies are still needed to clarify the issues.