Gene-diet interaction associated with the risk of gout

Adhering to the healthy Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet decreased the risk of gout in women. This effect was more pronounced in genetically predisposed individuals. Therefore, public interventions targeting diet could have a big impact on the growing number of incident gout cases worldwide.

Dr Chio Yokose (Massachusetts General Hospital, USA) presented the results of a prospective cohort study investigating the potential interaction effect between genetic predisposition and diet on incident gout in US women over 34 years (n=18,247). Genetic risk scores (GRS), biennial health questionnaires including self-reported incident gout, and data on exposure to the DASH diet (healthy) and western diet (unhealthy) were collected. Cox proportional hazards model was used to analyse the association between genes, diet, and the risk of incident gout.

The risk of gout increased in women who adhered less to the DASH diet, especially in genetically predisposed women. The relative risk of women with high GRS scores increased from 1.76 (best adherence to DASH diet) to 2.79 (worst adherence to DASH diet). In women with low GRS scores, the relative risk increased from 1 to 1.43. Subsequent interaction analysis trended towards significance. Adherence to the western diet resulted in a higher relative risk of incident gout in both low and high GRS scoring participants. However, no gene-diet interaction effect on incident gout was observed for the western diet. Dr Yokose argued that dietary interventions can significantly reduce the number of gout cases.

1. Yokose C, et al. Gene-Diet Interaction on the Risk of Incident Gout Among Women: Prospective Cohort Study over 34 Years. OP0203, EULAR 2021 Virtual Congress, 2-5 June.

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Posted on 8 June 20213 August 2021