Maternal and paternal effects on hyperuricaemia: a cross-sectional study from the seventh Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Objective As the heritability of hyperuricaemia remains largely unexplained, we analysed the association between parental and offspring hyperuricaemia at the phenotype level. Methods This cross-sectional study included data on 2373 offspring and both-parent pairs from the seventh Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Logistic regression and generalised estimating equation analysis were used to evaluate the association between offspring and parental hyperuricaemia adjusting for metabolic risk factors and alcohol intake. Results Both maternal and paternal hyperuricaemia were associated with offspring hyperuricaemia among teenagers, but from the age of 20 years, a strong association was observed between offspring and paternal, rather than, maternal hyperuricaemia, and this could not be explained by metabolic risk factors such as obesity. However, there was a positive interaction between offspring alcohol intake and parental hyperuricaemia, and there was a stronger association between terciles of offspring alcohol intake and hyperuricaemia in the presence of parental hyperuricaemia: T1 (reference), T2 odds ratio (OR) 1.1 (0.3-4.6), and T3 OR 3.3 (1.4-7.9) (P for trend .017) vs. T1 (reference), T2 OR 0.7 (0.3-1.9), and T3 OR 1.1 (0.6-2.2) (P for trend .974). Conclusion These results suggest a gene-environment interaction, especially with respect to alcohol intake for hyperuricaemia in Korean adults.