Eo Chin Kim1, Jong Sung Kim2, Won Chul Uh1, Soo Young Choi3, Sun Kyung Lee1, Bog Seon Jeong4

1Health Promotion Center, Daejeon St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Daejeon, Korea 2Department of Family Medicine, Chungnam National University Hospital, Chungnam National University School of Medicine, Daejeon, Korea 3Department of Family Medicine, Chungnam National University School of Medicine, Daejeon, Korea 4Department of Family Medicine, Daejeon Veterans Hospital, Daejeon, Korea


Background: This study aimed to determine the correlation between blood uric acid and homocysteine levels, based on alcohol-related facial flushing.
Methods: Among male adults who visited a health examination center of a university hospital located in Daejeon, Korea, for a personal health examination from March 2013 to February 2014, 702 subjects were analyzed including 401 subjects without alcohol-related facial flushing and 301 with facial flushing. Pearson’s correlation and stepwise multivariate linear regression analyses were performed between the log homocysteine levels and other variables including uric acid.
Results: Uric acid showed a significant positive correlation with log homocysteine (γ=0.166, P=0.001) (ß=0.176; P=0.001) in the non-flushing group. In contrast, none of the variables showed any significant correlations with log homocysteine in the flushing group.
Conclusions: Alcohol users not exhibiting alcohol-related facial flushing showed a positive correlation between uric acid and homocysteine levels, whereas those without facial flushing showed no such correlation.
Korean J Health Promot 2015;15(3):91-97

Keywords: Homocysteine, Uric acid, Flushing, Alcohol drinking