Direct and Indirect Effects of Serum Uric Acid on Blood Sugar Levels in Patients with Prediabetes: A Mediation Analysis.

Purpose: To estimate both direct and indirect effects (through obesity) of serum uric acid (SUA) on blood sugar in prediabetes patients.

Methods: Prediabetes patients who came to the outpatient clinic of the Department of Family Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, were included in this cross-sectional study. Mediation analysis was applied to determine direct and indirect effects of SUA on glycemic parameters (fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and HbA1c) through waist circumference (WC). A mediation effect was estimated using the product-of-coefficient method with a bootstrap analysis of 1000 replications.

Results: 1043 patients were eligible for this study. Every 1 mg/dl increase in SUA was associated with an increase in WC and then was significantly associated with an increase in FPG by 0.082 mg/dl (95% CI: 0.010, 0.154). SUA was directly associated with FPG with a coefficient of 0.413 (95% CI: 0.049, 0.776). For HbA1c, every one mg/dl increase in SUA was associated with an increase in HbA1c level through WC by 0.006 (95% CI: 0.003, 0.010). However, SUA was not directly associated with HbA1c.

Conclusions: We found that an increase in SUA was directly and indirectly associated with increased FPG but the effect of SUA on HbA1c was shown when it was mediated through WC.