Gout is a worldwide prevalent metabolic disease that can occur in different countries and in different ethnic groups. Its prevalence is related to many factors such as genetics, gender, age, lifestyle, diet, degree of economic development, treatment drugs, other diseases, and diagnostic criteria adopted. The incidence of gout varies according to race and region. The incidence of gout is higher in European and American countries, accounting for 0.13% to 0.37% of the total population, with an annual incidence of 0.20% to 0.35%. Before World War II, the prevalence of gout was very low in Eastern peoples. In Japan, however, the economy developed rapidly after World War II, and protein-based foods increased exponentially, so that gout has now become a common disease in Japan. The same is true in Taiwan, China, where the incidence of gout is reported to be 0.16‰ in rural areas and 0.67‰ in urban and surrounding areas. In China, 2 cases of gout were first diagnosed in 1948, and only 25 cases of gout were reported before 1958. By 1990, more than a thousand cases of gout had been reported, not including a large number of missed and misdiagnosed cases. Since the reform and opening up, the prevalence of gout and hyperuricemia has also been increasing with the rapid economic development and the intake of high protein food. Since there is no large-scale census, the exact incidence of gout in China is not yet completely certain, and is estimated to be below 0.1%. 2. Family inheritance Gout is a genetic defective disease with genetic tendency. At present, it is believed that the mode of inheritance of gout is generally autosomal dominant or autosomal recessive, partly x-linked inheritance. Primary gout is autosomal dominant, and about 10%-25% have a positive family history of gout. Approximately 5%-25% of close relatives of gout patients have hyperuricemia, and less than 1% of patients have enzyme defects. For people with a family history of gout, the likelihood of developing gout is greater than for others. 3, body shape Gout is often referred to as “rich disease”, more likely to be more obese middle-aged men over 40 years old, especially those who do not like exercise, eat more meat and protein, excess nutrition. It is often complicated by high blood lipids (high glycerol triglycerides), hypertension and so on. Therefore, as far as the onset of gout is concerned, obese people are higher than thin people, over-nourished people are higher than people with average nutrition, and middle-aged and elderly people are higher than young people. 4, gender Gender has a significant impact on the onset of gout. Some data show that male gout accounts for about 95% of the total number of gout patients, showing that men are significantly higher than women in the onset of gender characteristics. However, the age of onset of gout in women is almost always after menopause (except for secondary gout), and gout rarely occurs in women with normal menstruation, especially in young women. This may be due to the role of estrogen in promoting uric acid excretion by the kidneys. 5. Age The onset of gout also has obvious age characteristics. The vast majority of patients are between 40 and 55 years of age, with an average age of onset of disease of about 45 years, and the oldest can exceed 70 years; young people and even children can also suffer from gout, but it is very rare clinically. Therefore, caution should be exercised when diagnosing gout in children, premenopausal women and men under 30 years of age. In recent years, due to the improvement of people’s living standard, especially the change of diet and lifestyle, the age of onset of gout is also advancing, and it is not uncommon for people to develop gout before the age of 40, which must be taken seriously. 6, geographical location Geographic location may have some influence on the incidence of gout, but it is far less obvious than genetics, race, living conditions and other factors. In China, the incidence of gout is higher in the nomadic areas of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Highland hypoxia, especially in those who enter the plateau from the plains due to hypoxia suffering from alpine maladjustment, alpine erythropoiesis, alpine hypertension and alpine heart disease, can be secondary to acute gouty arthritis. Some people in the Tibetan plateau observed that the Han Chinese migrate to Tibet after the increased prevalence of gout, while some Han Chinese acute gouty arthritis patients from the mainland, when they return to the mainland, most patients no longer gouty arthritis attacks, whether it is due to food changes or plateau hypoxia is difficult to determine, but geographical factors can indeed affect the onset of gout. 7, occupation Gout mainly occurs in the upper class people with superior living conditions. Clinical surveys have shown that the incidence of gout is much higher in high-income middle and upper class people than in civilians and manual labor, and the incidence is significantly higher in urban than in rural areas. In China, the majority of gout patients are cadres, entrepreneurs, intellectuals and other people engaged in mental labor, as well as the so-called “white-collar” class, which may be related to the superior conditions of these people, generous treatment, less physical exertion and higher living standards.