Association of walking volume and intensity with incident gout: a population-based cohort study

Abstract

Previous studies have reported that walking is associated with a lower risk of several metabolic diseases; however, evidence of its association with gout, a metabolic condition, is lacking. We conducted cohort studies using data from the UK Biobank (2013-2021) to examine the relationship of walking volume and intensity with the risk of incident gout. We included 92 066 participants who were free of gout and had valid baseline seven-day accelerometer data, which allowed us to derive walking volume (total steps), walking intensity (peak 30-minute cadence), and their combination (purposeful steps). Hazard ratios (HRs) for incident gout were estimated across different walking activity metrics groups using Cox proportional hazard models. During a mean follow-up period of 6.93 years, 706 participants developed incident gout. Walking volume and intensity alone showed no significant relationship to the risk of incident gout. However, compared with the low group (<5000 steps/day) of purposeful steps, the risk of incident gout was lower in the middle group (5000-7999 steps/day) and high (≥8000 steps/day) group, with adjusted HRs and 95% confidence intervals of 0.78 (0.66-0.94) and 0.72 (0.58-0.90), respectively (P for trend = 0.003). These findings offer valuable insights into developing walking-based recommendations to prevent incident gout.

Keywords: cohort study; gout; walking; walking intensity; walking volume.