Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 1995 Sep;48(9):1153-8.
doi: 10.1016/0895-4356(94)00244-k.

The prevalence and prophylaxis of gout in England

C M Harris  1 , D C Lloyd, J Lewis
Affiliations

The prevalence and prophylaxis of gout in England

C M Harris et al. J Clin Epidemiol. 1995 Sep.

Abstract

The prevalence of gout in England was reported as having nearly doubled in the 1970s to about 3 per 1000, and it is possible that it has continued to increase. There may also have been some change in the level of prophylactic therapy compared with the 44.8% recorded in 1979. In this study, data were provided from their morbidity registers by 40 volunteer practices with a combined population of over 300,000 patients. Analyses of prevalence by age and sex, and of the extent of prophylaxis were made. The male:female ratio and the increase with age found were in line with earlier work, but overall prevalence was much higher at almost 10 per 1000. There was considerable inter-practice variation: 20% of this could be accounted for by the age and sex structure of the practice populations, but neither economic status nor broad geographical factors appeared to be significant, and it did not appear to be due to variation between practices in the level of special interest in gout. Prophylactic therapy--almost entirely allopurinol--was being prescribed for 48% of the sufferers; though practices varied widely in their propensity to give it, as a group the amount of allopurinol they used was close to the national average. The increase found in the prevalence of gout may be related to an increase in obesity in the population.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources