Non-modifiable risk factors and socio-demographic status in hyperuricemic subjects consuming purine-rich foods in Makkah

Gout is not the only complication resulting from hyperuricemia (HU). There are a variety of other pathological conditions where HU plays a role. The HU may occur in gastric cancer, ischemic colitis (IC) in young adult population, urinary stones in subjects with a permanent ileostomy, entero-arthrotic syndrome, and obstructive uropathy associated with rotavirus gastroenteritis, laxative abuse syndrome and morbidly obese patients after jejunoileal intestinal bypass surgery etc. In the present study, the prevalence, role of non-modifiable risk factors (age, gender), and socio-demographic status (education, family size and monthly income) in normouricemic subjects (NUS) and hyperuricemic subjects (HUS) (total randomly selected subjects=108; male: 83; female: 25; HUS: n=21 men (25.30% of total subjects); mean plus minus SD of age for HUS: 34.75 plus minus 12.37 years that is significantly higher (p=0.009) than the control NUS: 27.76 plus minus 8.54 years) in Makkah were studied. It was noticed that the HUS had habit of consuming purine-rich foods. The greater part of investigated subjects had graduate educational level for NUS (71.26%) and HUS (42.86 %). Education level, in general was found significantly different for the NUS and HUS (p less than 0.01). The highest percentage is of HUS (39.08%) and NUS (57.14%) for the family size of 5-10 persons. The income of total family subjects as less than 3500 SAR/month was found for the highest number of NU group as 33 subjects (37.8%), and HU group as 6 (28.57 %) receiving total family income 5000- less than 7000 SAR/month. In general, the value of p was found 0.09 for income levels in HUS compared with NUS. The present report is a cross-sectional design and also did not incorporate information on other factors that might be related to the prevalence of HP, and additionally considerable difficulty was faced for obtaining female HUS primarily due to religious and socio-cultural traditions. Hence, it is recommended for a comprehensive study in future with large sample size of hyperuricemic patients (HUP) with the inclusion of female subjects of various age groups.