31st January 2024

Risk factors

Dietary factors associated with gout

• Meat consumption, specifically beef, pork, and lamb
• Alcohol: beer has a higher association with gout than spirits. There is no specific association between wine consumption and gout
• Sugary drinks- Consuming 2 or more sugar-sweetened soft drinks daily is strongly associated with gout
• There is an association between coffee consumption and gout but not with tea. 

Medications

• Diuretics- thiazide and loop diuretics. Thiazide and loop diuretics lead to urate reabsorption at the proximal convoluted tubule (PCT) via the URAT1 transporter. It is thought to be due to salt and water loss promoting urate reabsorption, but the mechanism is still unclear. 
• Cyclosporin when compared to tacrolimus and azathioprine in transplant recipients. This is due to reduced urate excretion and, therefore, a risk of gout. 

Co-morbidities

• Obesity
• Hypertension
• Diabetes mellitus
• Hypercholesterolaemia and hypertriglyceridemia
• Cancers
• Increased age
• Osteoarthritis
• Previous joint trauma 
• Metabolic disease such as hyperparathyroidism, hemochromatosis and hypomagnesaemia are less common.