Serum uric acid in Korean children and adolescents: reference percentiles and association with metabolic syndrome

Purpose: To establish age/sex-specific reference intervals for serum uric acid and to examine the associations between serum uric acid level and metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its components in Korean children and adolescents. Methods: We analyzed data for 1,349 subjects aged 10 to 19 years from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2016-2017. Results: The mean uric acid levels were 5.9 +/- 1.3 mg/dL (interquartile range, 5.0-6.8 mg/dL) in males and 4.6 +/- 0.9 mg/dL (interquartile range, 3.9-5.2 mg/dL) in females. The mean uric acid level increased significantly from 10-13 years of age in males, but not in females. The overall prevalence of MetS was 5.9% (7.3% in males and 4.3% in females; P=0.022). The prevalences of MetS in the lowest, second, third, and highest quartiles of uric acid level were 4.4%, 3.3%, 6.1%, and 15.2%, respectively, in males (P for trend <0.001) and 1.9%, 0.0%, 4.1%, and 10.9%, respectively, in females (P for trend <0.001). Compared with the lowest quartile of uric acid level, the odds ratio (with 95% confidence interval) for MetS in the highest quartile was 2.897 (1.140-7.361) in males and 5.173 (1.459-18.342) in females. Subjects in the highest quartile exhibited increased risk for abdominal obesity and low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol in both sexes. Conclusion: Serum uric acid level is positively associated with MetS and its components abdominal obesity and low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol.