Dose-response relationship between alcohol drinking and gout risk: do subtypes of alcoholic beverages make a difference?

Although previous studies have explored the association of drinking with gout risk, the dose-response relationship was uncertain and the evidence between subtypes of alcoholic beverages and gout risk was limited.
The impact of alcohol drinking and its subtypes on gout risk was assessed using weekly alcoholic beverage consumption data in the UK Biobank.
During a mean follow-up period of 11.70 years, a total of 5,728 newly incident gout cases were diagnosed among 331,865 participants. Light alcohol drinking was found to be linked to a slight decrease in gout incidence among females (HR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.65 to 0.94), whereas it showed no significant association in males. Moreover, the dose-response relationship showed that light red wine and fortified wine could reduce the risk of gout. Beer, champagne plus white wine and spirits, however, promoted the risk of gout at any dose.
The study suggested a J-shaped dose-response relationship of drinking with gout risk in females rather than males. For specific alcoholic beverages, light consumption of red wine and fortified wine was associated with a reduced risk of gout. These findings offer new insights into the roles of alcoholic beverages in gout, while further validation is warranted, the researchers comment.
Source: Chen W, Cai Y, Sun X, Liu B, Ying J, Qian Y, Li J, He Z, Wen C, Mao Y, Ye D. (2024) Dose-response relationship between alcohol drinking and gout risk: do subtypes of alcoholic beverages make a difference? Journal of Rheumatology, jrheum.2024-0065.