Gout is not associated with an increased risk of fracture, finds a large study that contradicts previous findings.
The UK study matched 31 781 patients with gout from a primary care database to 122961 controls and followed them for between 6.8 and 13.6 years until the first diagnosis of a fracture.
The absolute fracture rate of fracture was similar in both cases and controls (53 and 55 per 10000 person-years respectively).
Urate lowering medications also had no beneficial or negative effect on the long-term risk of fracture, the researchers reported in their paper published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
“These findings should be reassuring to patients, health care policy-makers and clinicians,” the researchers concluded.