Nutr Res Pract.  2024 Aug;18(4):534-543. 10.4162/nrp.2024.18.4.534.

Association between dietary fiber intake and kidney stones: results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2011–2018)

• Chen W
• Hong Y
• Man S
• Xu T

• KMID: 2558491
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4162/nrp.2024.18.4.534

Abstract

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES
Studies on the impact of dietary fiber intake on kidney stones are few, and their results were controversial. This study aimed to explore the association between dietary fiber intake and kidney stones in the nationally representative population of the USA.
SUBJECTS/METHODS
This cross-sectional research included 8,588 participants from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2011 to 2018. Information regarding dietary fiber intake was obtained from a 24-h recall survey. Participants were categorized into different dietary fiber intake tertiles according to the average of 2 days of dietary recall data. The outcome was self-reported kidney stones. After adjusting for the traditional risk factors, a multivariate logistic regression model was used to examine the association between dietary fiber intake and kidney stones.
RESULTS
Eight hundred seventy-two participants had kidney stones. The weighted prevalence (SE) of kidney stones in the lowest tertile, medium tertile, and highest tertile of dietary fiber intake was 11.8% (0.8%), 10.3% (0.8%), and 9.1% (0.8%), respectively. After adjusting for age, sex, race and ethnicity, education level, smoking status, alcohol consumption, physical activity, body mass index, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, daily water intake, chronic kidney disease stage 3–5, and total energy intake, participants with the highest tertile of fiber intake had a significantly lower risk of kidney stones (odds ratio [OR], 0.68; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.48–0.95) compared to those in the lowest tertile. Every 5 g/day increment in dietary fiber intake was associated with a significant decrease in risk of kidney stones (OR, 0.90; 95% CI, 0.83–0.98).
CONCLUSION
An increase in dietary fiber intake was associated with a lower risk of kidney stones, suggesting adults should be encouraged to maintain an adequate dietary fiber intake to prevent the development of kidney stones. Our results provide evidence to formulate nutrition management strategies for the prevention of kidney stones.

Keyword

Dietary fiber; nutrients; kidney stones; urolithiasis; prevention

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Flowchart of the study participants.

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  Fig. 2 Dose–response relationship between dietary fiber intake and kidney stones. The solid lines and shaded areas represent the ORs and the corresponding 95% CIs. The models were adjusted for age, sex, race and ethnicity, education level, smoking status, alcohol consumption, physical activity, body mass index, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, daily water intake, chronic kidney disease stage 3–5, and total energy intake. P-values for non-linearity were obtained using a chi-squared test to compare nested models.OR, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval.

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