The Rheumatologist
COVID-19 NewsACR Convergence
  • Connect with us:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Feed
  • Home
  • Conditions
    • Rheumatoid Arthritis
    • SLE (Lupus)
    • Crystal Arthritis
      • Gout Resource Center
    • Spondyloarthritis
    • Osteoarthritis
    • Soft Tissue Pain
    • Scleroderma
    • Vasculitis
    • Systemic Inflammatory Syndromes
    • Guidelines
  • Resource Centers
    • Axial Spondyloarthritis Resource Center
    • Gout Resource Center
    • Psoriatic Arthritis Resource Center
    • Rheumatoid Arthritis Resource Center
    • Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Resource Center
  • Drug Updates
    • Biologics & Biosimilars
    • DMARDs & Immunosuppressives
    • Topical Drugs
    • Analgesics
    • Safety
    • Pharma Co. News
  • Professional Topics
    • Ethics
    • Legal
    • Legislation & Advocacy
    • Career Development
      • Certification
      • Education & Training
    • Awards
    • Profiles
    • President’s Perspective
    • Rheuminations
    • Interprofessional Perspective
  • Practice Management
    • Billing/Coding
    • Quality Assurance/Improvement
    • Workforce
    • Facility
    • Patient Perspective
    • Electronic Health Records
    • Apps
    • Information Technology
    • From the College
    • Multimedia
      • Audio
      • Video
  • Resources
    • Issue Archives
    • ACR Convergence
      • Gout Resource Center
      • Axial Spondyloarthritis Resource Center
      • Psoriatic Arthritis
      • Abstracts
      • Meeting Reports
      • ACR Convergence Home
    • American College of Rheumatology
    • ACR ExamRheum
    • Research Reviews
    • ACR Journals
      • Arthritis & Rheumatology
      • Arthritis Care & Research
      • ACR Open Rheumatology
    • Rheumatology Image Library
    • Treatment Guidelines
    • Rheumatology Research Foundation
    • Events
  • About Us
    • Mission/Vision
    • Meet the Authors
    • Meet the Editors
    • Contribute to The Rheumatologist
    • Subscription
    • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Search
You are here: Home / Articles / Patients with Gout May Not Understand Serum Urate Goals & Treatments

Patients with Gout May Not Understand Serum Urate Goals & Treatments

July 1, 2016 • By Richard Quinn

  • Tweet
  • Email
Print-Friendly Version / Save PDF

Generic_Practice_Management_500x270Most patients with gout understand the basics of their condition, but only a minority recognizes the importance of achieving and maintaining their serum urate (SU) goals, according to an article accepted for publication in Arthritis Care & Research.1

You Might Also Like
  • New Study: Does Urate-Lowering Therapy Reduce Gout-Patient Mortality?
  • Gout Treatments Effective If Patients Maintain Lifelong Adherence to Therapies
  • Aggressive Urate Lowering Needed for Gout
Also By This Author
  • Nanomedicines May Reset the Immune System to Treat Disease

Investigators asked six gout-specific questions of 612 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) patients who were prescribed allopurinol in the past year. Only 14% of respondents knew their SU goal, a surprisingly low figure according to Ted Mikuls, MD, MSPH, Division of Rheumatology at University of Nebraska Medical Center and VA Medical Center in Omaha, and senior author of “Target Serum Urate: Do Gout Patients Know Their Goal?.”

ad goes here:advert-1
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

“Knowledge for the other five questions was quite good. The lowest correct response rate was 62% and highest was 90%,” Dr. Mikuls says. “The majority of patients knew these other important elements of their disease … but they had very little knowledge of what the SU target was for a therapy (allopurinol) they already were on.”

Digging deeper into the study results, SU goal knowledge was associated with self-reported global health status, but not with self-reported health-related quality of life or gout-specific health status. Dr. Mikuls says the study shines a light on a gap in patient education.

ad goes here:advert-2
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

“You need a well-informed patient. You need a proactive healthcare team. Both are key elements to doing things optimally,” he says. “We have gaps, not only in patient knowledge, but also in provider practices, and that has been shown in the literature. So it’s not going to be an easy problem to tackle. But I think this study shows that, on the patient end, this is a gap we need to begin filling if we are going to do this better.”

Dr. Mikuls recommends starting with the ACR guidelines, which suggest providers impart such knowledge to patients with gout.

“I think the physician taking the time to explain why different therapies are used and the goals of those different therapies are really key to successful gout management,” Dr. Mikuls says. “I think if patients understand that and are engaged in that, it can make a big difference.”

ad goes here:advert-3
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

Richard Quinn is a freelance writer in New Jersey.

Reference

  1. Coburn BW, Bendlin KA, Sayles H, et al. Target serum urate: Do gout patients know their goal? Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2016 Jan 19. doi: 10.1002/acr.22785. [Epub ahead of print]

Filed Under: Conditions, Crystal Arthritis, Practice Management Tagged With: Allopurinol, Gout, patient education, tips, treatment goals

You Might Also Like:
  • New Study: Does Urate-Lowering Therapy Reduce Gout-Patient Mortality?
  • Gout Treatments Effective If Patients Maintain Lifelong Adherence to Therapies
  • Aggressive Urate Lowering Needed for Gout
  • Patients May Be Right: Tomatoes May Trigger Gout Flares

ACR Convergence

Don’t miss rheumatology’s premier scientific meeting for anyone involved in research or the delivery of rheumatologic care or services.

Visit the ACR Convergence site »

Meeting Abstracts

Browse and search abstracts from the ACR Convergence and ACR/ARP Annual Meetings going back to 2012.

Visit the Abstracts site »

American College of Rheumatology

Visit the official website for the American College of Rheumatology.

Visit the ACR »

The Rheumatologist newsmagazine reports on issues and trends in the management and treatment of rheumatic diseases. The Rheumatologist reaches 11,500 rheumatologists, internists, orthopedic surgeons, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, and other healthcare professionals who practice, research, or teach in the field of rheumatology.

About Us / Contact Us / Advertise / Privacy Policy / Terms of Use / Cookie Preferences

  • Connect with us:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Feed

Copyright © 2006–2023 American College of Rheumatology. All rights reserved.

ISSN 1931-3268 (print)
ISSN 1931-3209 (online)