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While approximately one in 40 adults in the UK suffers from gout, management and adherence are sub-optimal, a new study reports.

Researchers used a primary care database to estimate gout’s prevalence and incid- ence in 2012: 2.49 and 1.77 per 1,000 person-years respectively – up 63.9 and 29.6 per cent respectively from 1997. Men were significantly more likely to have gout (3.97 per cent) than women (1.05 per cent).

The male-to-female ratio rose from 1.5 in people younger than 20 years of age to 11.2 in those aged 35-39 years, then decreased to 2.5 among those older than 90 years of age. Gout was commonest in North East England and Wales.

During 2012, only 48.5 per cent of gout patients were managed and just 37.6 per cent of these received urate-lowering treatment (ULT). Only 18.6 and 27.3 per cent of new gout patients received ULT within six and 12 months of their diagnosis respectively.

Management of new and existing gout patients “remained essentially the same” between 1997 and 2012, although the proportion of adherent patients improved from 28.3 per cent to 39.7 per cent over this time.

The authors concluded that educational initiatives are “urgently required” to improve healthcare professionals’ “knowledge, interest and standard of care of the only ‘curable’ form of inflammatory arthritis”. (Ann Rheum Dis)

• See also The Mark Greener Column