Epidemiology of kidney stone disease

Kidney stone disease affects around 10% of the population at some point in their lifetime. In the last 10 years there has been a significant increase (67%) in the number of hospital diagnoses relating to stone disease (HES data). There is relatively limited data on causation. It is thought that diet and lifestyle have a significant impact on risk.
The aim of this project is to identify stone-forming patients in the UK Biobank using the HES link (6589 incident cases as of 16/9/14) and investigate potential dietary and lifestyle risk factors. This study would provide information for kidney stone formers to reduce their risk of recurrent stone formation. As such it meets one of the UK Biobank’s objectives: to improve prevention of disease. Stone forming patients will be identified using ICD codes and/or OPCS codes. Analysis of lifestyle and dietary factors will be compared with non-stone formers in the cohort. A subset of patients with stones will be identified but their lifestyle and dietary data will need to be compared to the entire cohort.