Association between serum uric acid levels and obesity among university students (China)

Objective: to evaluate the association between serum uric acid and obesity among university students who participated in routine health screening in 2013. Methods: in this cross-sectional study, 3529 subjects were analyzed. Obesity categories were classified by BMI levels references in China. And serum uric acid levels were classified by serum uric acid quartiles. Two-sample T-test and Wilcoxon Rank sum test were used to compare age, biochemical and anthropometric parameters of subjects of two genders. Rank correlation used to analyze relationship between serum uric acid and obesity. Results: there were 1285 males (mean age, 19.8 +/- 1.3 years) and 2244 females (mean age, 19.9 +/- 1.3 years) in this study. Association between 2nd serum uric acid quartile and normal in male are significant and coefficient was 0.519. The 3rd serum uric acid quartile and normal in female was associated significantly(r = 0.173, p = 0.010). And associations between overweight and 3rd and 4th serum uric acid quartiles in female were significant(r = 0.128, p = 0.038 in 1st quartile and r = 0.282, p = 0.004 in 4th quartile). The 4th serum uric acid quartile and Obesity in two gender groups were significantly associated(r = 0.291, p = 0.000 in male and r = 0.484, p = 0.001 in female). Conclusion: high serum uric acid was positively associated with obesity in overweight and obesity group. However, the association was weak between two variables because serum uric acid influenced obesity with other related factors together.