Fig. 1

Study design for analysis of incident gout (n = 11,079). Creation of a cross-sectional, retrospective cohort of US adults. We studied individuals who participated in the NHANES (2007–2014) cross-sectional survey at ages 40–74 years. It was based on the participants’ memory recalled weight history at age 25 (young adulthood) and 10 years before the survey (age 30–64 years, midlife), which was used to create a measure of weight change between young adulthood and midlife. We then investigated the association between this weight change and the successive risk of developing gout. “Follow-up” for incident gout began 10 years before the survey. Individuals who reported receiving a first diagnosis of gout between 10 years before the survey and time of the survey were considered to have incident gout