SAN DIEGO, CA USA (UroToday.com) - It has been advocated that the rise in prevalence of urolithiasis may be related to changes in dietary habits. The Economic Research Service Loss-Adjusted Food Availability Data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) annually accounts for all food available for human consumption in the US.
Dr. Manoj Monga and colleagues performed a study to evaluate changing trends in the American diet from 1974 o 2010 and to identify whether caloric intake and the consumption of lithogenic foods has been rising.
The authors compared the NHANES-reported rates for stone disease from 1974 to 2010, to USDA data on food distribution during the same period. Three data points for prevalence, spanning 38 years, were used from the published data. They used two linear models to interpolate the yearly increase in stone prevalence. They compared the changes in lithogenic foods over the same period, correlating their values with the changing prevalence of stones over time.
Their analysis demonstrated that increased consumption of total daily calories, fat grams, protein ounces, and fruits/vegetables correlated strongly with the annual increase in stone prevalence. Specific foods also showed strong correlations with stone prevalence, including dark green vegetables, flour/cereal products, and corn products including high fructose corn syrup and added sugars. Citrus juice was negatively correlated to stone disease though it was not statistically significant.
The authors concluded that several lithogenic components correlate temporally with the simultaneous increase in stones. However, whether these correlations are incidental or causal cannot be determined in the present study. Nevertheless, the American diet has clearly changed over the last four decades and further investigation is required to better evaluate how this has impacted, and may continue to impact, the prevalence of nephrolithiasis.
Presented by Shubha De, MD and Manoj Monga, MD at the American Urological Association (AUA) Annual Meeting - May 4 - 8, 2013 - San Diego Convention Center - San Diego, California USA
The Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH USA
Reported for UroToday.com by Zhamshid Okhunov, MD; UC Irvine Medical Center, Orange, CA USA