Intensive diet for patients with obesity, gout helps with weight loss but not symptom reduction

For patients with gout and obesity, an intensive dietary intervention leads to reductions in body weight, but the weight loss does not necessarily translate to improvements in serum urate, fatigue, and pain, according to a study.

The study was a 16-week randomized, nonblinded, parallel-group trial that included 61 individuals with obesity and gout residing in Denmark. These participants were randomly assigned to groups given a low-energy diet (n=29) or a control diet (n=32).

At baseline, the participants had a mean age of 60.3 years, with most (97 percent) being men. The mean body mass index was 35.6 kg/m². At 16 weeks after the intervention, the participants showed a significant difference in change in body weight in favour of the low-energy diet (–15.4 vs –7.7 kg; difference, –7.7 kg, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], –10.7 to –4.7; p<0.001).

However, there were no between-group differences observed in serum urate and fatigue, as well as in pain and gout flares.

As for safety, none of the patients had serious adverse events or died during the trial.

Despite the scarcity of evidence, current guidelines recommend weight loss as management strategy for gout patients. The present data challenge these recommendations.