A pilot study on the epidemiology of hyperuricemia in Chinese adult population based on big data from Electronic Medical Records 2014 to 2018.

Background: We performed this study based on big data from Electronic Medical Records (EMR) of outpatients and inpatients from 52 hospitals in China to investigate the prevalence of hyperuricemia in Chinese adults.

Methods: In this retrospective, descriptive study, a total of 3,363,016 subjects from 52 hospitals in 13 provinces and municipalities in China were enrolled. Eligible subjects were 18 years and older performing serum uric acid test between 2014 and 2018. Subjects were divided into the total group (including the subjects from all the clinic departments) and department-amended group (including the subjects from all the departments except endocrinology, orthopedics, and rheumatology and immunology departments).

Results: The prevalence of hyperuricemia in the department-amended group was lower than that in the total group (23.06% and 23.42% in 2018, respectively; P<0.0001). From 2014 to 2017, the prevalence of hyperuricemia increased year by year (18.29%, 20.02%, 20.16% and 23.06%, respectively) in the department-amended group. Besides, the prevalence of hyperuricemia was higher in men than that in women (38.00% and 11.89%, respectively; P<0.0001) and higher in southern region than in northern region (25.84% and 9.79%, respectively; P<0.0001) in department-amended group in 2018.

Conclusions: Projections from our study estimate that about 271 million Chinese adults aged 18 years and older may have had hyperuricemia in 2018. These findings will be useful for the future researches and healthcare decision.