Association of sedentary behavior and physical activity with hyperuricemia and its gender differences: results from the China Multi-Ethnic Cohort study

Objective To estimate the association of physical activity (PA), sedentary time (leisure ST, total ST), commuting mode with hyperuricemia in a multi-ethnic Chinese population, and analyze the difference between genders. Methods Baseline data from the China Multi-Ethnic Cohort study, Yunnan region, which was 22, 094 participants. Physical activity and sedentary behavior were assessed by using questionnaires. Hyperuricemia was defined as serum urate >7.0 mg/dL among men and >6.0 mg/dL among women. A restricted cubic spline (RCS) was created to visualize the possible nonlinear relationship of PA, ST with hyperuricemia. Logistic regression was used to estimate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Results Hyperuricemia prevalence in the observed population was 15.5% (men 25.5%, women 10.7%). Compared to those with light PA, the moderate-to-vigorous PA had a lower hyperuricemia rate; adjusted ORs (95%CI) were 0.85 (95% CI: 0.77, 0.94) and 0.88 (95% CI: 0.79, 0.97). However, RCS has shown a non-linear relationship between PA and hyperuricemia, which was U-shaped. For another, the risk of hyperuricemia prevalence increased in linear fashions with increasing ST, as demonstrated by RCS. Total ST ≥4 hours/day increased the risk of hyperuricemia in women but not in men. Mode of transportation revealed that sedentary behavior increased the risk of hyperuricemia and also presented inconsistent results in gender. Conclusion Moderate PA may be more beneficial to hyperuricemia and reducing sedentary time in females may have a better effect on preventing HUA than that in males.