The association between the risk of subsequent gout and hypertensive disorders in pregnancy (HDP), including gestational hypertension and preeclampsia has not been well investigated. We investigated the risk of gout in later life for women with a history of HDP.
We identified 1133 newly diagnosed HDP women aged 14-40 years from Taiwan insurance claims data from the period of 2000-2010. From the same database, 9064 women without HDP were randomly selected as the control cohort, with frequency matched by age and diagnosis year. Those with a baseline history of hypertension or gout were excluded from this study. All study participants were followed until the development of gout, withdrawal from the insurance program, or the end of 2011. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to assess the risk for gout in the HDP cohort compared with the controls.
The incidence of gout was 2.83 folds higher in the HDP cohort than in the control cohort (2.66 vs. 0.94 per 1000 person-years) with an adjusted hazard ratio of 2.34 (95% confidence interval = 1.36-4.02) and 1.84 (95% confidence interval = 1.03-3.32) after controlling for comorbidities prior to and after pregnancy, respectively. In addition, the risk for gout increased as the severity of HDP increased.
Women with HDP are at higher risk of developing gout in their later life. Close surveillance for hyperuricemia and lifestyle intervention should be considered for these high risk women. Further prospective study is needed for investigating the relationship between HDP and subsequent gout.