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Epidemiology and Population Health

Patterns of weight change during adulthood and incidence of nephrolithiasis: a population-based study

International Journal of Obesity volume 48, pages 461–468 (2024)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background

There is some evidence to suggest that there may be a link between body mass index (BMI) and the development of kidney stones, it remains unclear whether weight change was associated with the presence of kidney stone.

Aims

The objective of this study was to investigate the potential association between changes patterns in weight during adulthood and the incidence of kidney stone.

Methods

This study included 14472 participants aged 30-75 years, whose BMI was recorded at both baseline and 10 years prior to the survey. We categorized individuals into five weight change patterns: stable healthy, non-obesity to obesity, obesity to non-obesity, stable obesity, and maximum overweight. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) relating weight change to incident kidney stone were calculated using logistic regression models adjusting for covariates. The non-linear association between absolute weight change was investigated using the restricted cubic spline (RCS) regression. The supposed population attributable fraction (PAF) for the weight change patterns was calculated.

Results

After adjusting for all confounders, participants changing from non-obesity to obesity, obesity to non-obesity, and stable obesity had significantly higher risks of kidney stone than those with healthy weight during adulthood (OR = 1.59, 95% CI:1.18–2.13; OR = 1.78, 95% CI: 1.47–2.16; OR = 1.80, 95% CI: 1.48–2.19, respectively). A U-shaped association was observed, and the risk of kidney stone was lowest in participants with stable healthy BMI. If the population had maintained a healthy BMI, a 28.7% (95% CI: 18.6%–37.5%) lower incidence of kidney stones was observed.

Conclusions

This study found that changes in weight during adulthood are linked to the risk of developing kidney stones. Maintaining healthy weight during adulthood is important for reducing the risk of developing kidney stones.

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Fig. 1: Flow chart of the study population inclusion.
Fig. 2: Restricted cubic spline demonstrates the relationship between absolute weight change across adulthood and the risk of nephrolithiasis.

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Data availability

Publicly available dataset was analyzed in this study. The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey dataset are publicly available at https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/index.htm.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for sharing the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ultrasound, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, Anhui, China

    Enfa Zhao, Yuan Gao, Rong Xiao & Chaoxue Zhang

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  1. Enfa Zhao
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  2. Yuan Gao
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  4. Chaoxue Zhang
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Contributions

EZ, YG, and RX participated in literature search, study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, and wrote the manuscript. EZ, YG, and RX, and CZ conceived of the study, and participated in its design, coordination, data collection and analysis. EZ, and CZ participated in study design and provided the critical revision. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chaoxue Zhang.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics approval

The conduct of NHANES was approved by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Research Ethics Review Board and written informed consent was given by all participants at the time of recruitment.

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Zhao, E., Gao, Y., Xiao, R. et al. Patterns of weight change during adulthood and incidence of nephrolithiasis: a population-based study. Int J Obes 48, 461–468 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41366-023-01434-x

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