These researchers recruited 295 patients with newly diagnosed gout disease (duration <10 years) from primary and secondary care settings and followed them for a mean 5.1 years (a total 1511 patient years accrued). At the time of censorship, 14.6% had died (standardised mortality ratio 1.96). A reduced Cox proportional hazards model revealed that the following factors were independently associated with an increased risk of all-cause death: older age (70–80 years: HR 9.96; 80–91 years: HR 9.39), Māori or Pacific ethnicity (HR 2.48), loop diuretic use (HR 3.99), serum creatinine (per 10 μmol/L change; HR 1.04), and the presence of subcutaneous tophi (HR 2.85). The presence of subcutaneous tophi was the only baseline variable independently associated with both cardiovascular (CV) cause of death (HR 3.13) and non-CV cause of death (HR 3.48).
