NEW HAVEN SURVEY OF JOINT DISEASES - PREDICTION OF SERUM URIC ACID IN A GENERAL POPULATION

Serum uric acid was one of several serum components measured in a survey of joint disease in the general population in New Haven, Connecticut. Its relationships are reported with sex; age; height; weight; and ponderal index their derivative; socio-economic status; total serum protein; serum albumin and the α1, α2, β and γ fractions of serum globulin. Data were available for all thirteen variables in 679 of a target population of 2389 people. With the exception of social class, mean values for all these variables differed significantly between the sexes. A multiple regression analysis treating serum uric acid as a dependent variable showed its best predictors in the male, in order of importance, to be ponderal index, age, hemoglobin and total serum protein accounting for 8 per cent of the total uric acid variation. The best predictors, in the female, again in order of importance, were weight, age, total serum protein and hemoglobin accounting for 19 per cent of the total uric acid variation. The contributions of serum proteins in the male and of hemoglobin in the female were only significant at the 10 per cent level; those of the other three variables in each sex were significant at 5 per cent or less. There was no association between uric acid and socio-economic status in either sex; the most probable reason for this is the absence of poverty in the study population. It is concluded that the many sex differences in predictability, though obscure, may offer important leads to the understanding of the determinants of serum uric acid levels. © 1969.