Higher Dietary Inflammatory Index Increases Mortality Rate of Adults With Hyperuricemia: Findings From the National Health and Nutritional Examination Surveys (2001-2018).

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess the association between Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) score and mortality among adults with hyperuricemia.

METHODS: We collected data from the 2001-2018 cohorts of the National Health and Nutritional Examination Surveys (NHANES). Mortality information was obtained based on death certificate records from the National Death Index (NDI) through 31 December 2019. The associations between DII score and all-cause, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer mortality were investigated by using Cox proportional hazards regression models.

RESULTS: We enrolled 7786 participants with hyperuricemia in this study. The DII score ranged from -4.42 to 4.61. Higher DII score was significantly associated with higher levels of BMI, glycohemoglobin, glucose, LDL-cholesterol and CRP (all P <0.05). During 67851 person-years of follow-up, 1456 participants were identified death including 532 CVD deaths and 246 cancer deaths. After adjusted for potential variables, significant higher risk of all-cause (HR:1.18, 95% CI: 1.03, 1.36, P =0.01) and CVD (HR:1.30, 95% CI: 1.03, 1.63, P =0.02) mortality was observed for individuals with higher DII score. Considering the DII score as a continuous variable, the risk of all-cause and CVD mortality increases 5% (HR:1.05, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.08) and 8% (HR:1.08, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.15) with each one-unit increment in DII, respectively. Subgroup analysis indicated that the association between DII and all-cause mortality among hyperuricemia participants was more significant in male.

CONCLUSION: DII score is found positively associated with all-cause and CVD mortality of adults with hyperuricemia. Controlling the intake of pro-inflammatory food might be potential strategy to reduce mortality.