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Association Between Low-Level Blood Cadmium Exposure and Hyperuricemia in the American General Population: a Cross-sectional Study

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Abstract

Heavy metals, including cadmium, are suspected to increase serum uric acid levels and hyperuricemia in both gender, but the evidences about this are inconclusive. To determine whether serum cadmium in American adults(≥19 years old) is associated with uric acid levels and risk of hyperuricemia, 2620 participants from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were recruited. Hyperuricemia was defined as a serum UA concentration ≥ 416.4 μmol/L for men and ≥ 356.9 μmol/L for women. Regression analyses were used to analyze the association of cadmium with serum UA and hyperuricemia. The threshold effect explored using two-piecewise linear regression model by the smoothing plot. The overall median of blood cadmium was 0.27 μg/L in men and 0.33μg/L in women. After adjusting for the covariates (race; age; education; BMI; smoke status; alcohol consumption; blood lead; hypertension; diabetes mellitus; hemoglobin; eGFR; triglyceride; and cholesterol), a non-linear relationship between hyperuricemia and cadmium among men was detected; and there was a positive line correlation between them for women (OR = 1.58; 95%CI (1.08, 2.31)). No significant association between uric acid and cadmium in either gender was found. Blood cadmium levels in the range currently considered acceptable were positively associated with increased prevalence of hyperuricemia in women, but inversely associated in men (cadmium <0.77μg/L).

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available in the NHANES database. (https://wwwn.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/continuousnhanes/default.aspx?BeginYear=2015)

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Acknowledgements

The authors are very grateful to the data providers for making the data used in this study publicly available.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiology, Hainan General Hospital, Hainan Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University, Haikou, China

    Aihui Zeng & Yan Zhou

  2. Department of Oncology, Hainan General Hospital, Hainan Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University, Haikou, China

    Sai Li & Datong Sun

Authors
  1. Aihui Zeng
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  2. Sai Li
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  3. Yan Zhou
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  4. Datong Sun
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Contributions

Aihui Zeng contributed to the drafting of the manuscript, and analysis and interpretation of the data. Datong Sun contributed to the conception and critical revision of the manuscript, analysis and interpretation of the data and approved the final version of the submitted manuscript. Sai Li and Yan Zou helped perform the analysis with constructive discussions. All of the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Datong Sun.

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Ethics Approval

Ethics Review Board (ERB) Protocol Number is Protocol #2011-17, available at https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/irba98.htm. The Ethical Review Board at Hainan General Hospital exempted this study from review due to the de-identified nature of the data.

Consent to Participate

All NHANES participants provided informed consent for their data to be shared and used for our analysis.

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The manuscript has not been submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration.

The submitted work is original and has not been published elsewhere in any form or language.

The study was not split up into several parts and not submitted to various journals or to one journal over time.

Results are presented clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate data manipulation. We, the authors, adhere to discipline-specific rules for acquiring, selecting, and processing data.

No data, text, or theories by others are presented as if they were the author’s own.

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Zeng, A., Li, S., Zhou, Y. et al. Association Between Low-Level Blood Cadmium Exposure and Hyperuricemia in the American General Population: a Cross-sectional Study. Biol Trace Elem Res 200, 560–567 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-021-02700-7

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