Risk Factors for Kidney Stones in Rural Puducherry: Case-Control Study.

Introduction: Renal stone is a distressing chronic condition which is getting common across the world. The rigorous evidence on multiple risk factors of kidney stone from a single study is limited.

Aim: To find out the social and dietary risk factors responsible for the occurrence of kidney stone in a local community in rural Puducherry, India.

Materials and Methods: It was a hospital-based unmatched case-control study. Based on existing information, a sample of 70 cases and 140 controls was calculated and considered adequate. The exposure information on recent cases was uniformly collected by interview and review of radiologic records and exposure information for controls was collected through interviews. Associations between the occurrence of renal stone as a dependent variable and multiple independent variables such as age, sex, socioeconomic status, type of family, religion, the source of drinking water and dietary practices were studied by using multiple logistic regression analysis.

Results: We found associations of occurrence of kidney stone with genetic predisposition (OR:16.98, CI;3.02-95.25), less frequency of urine per day (OR:5.95, CI;1.03-34.19) and dietary habit of eating red meat once a week (OR:32.28, CI; 9.7-143.2) and even once a month (OR:5.20, CI;1.44-18.77).

Conclusion: The risk of kidney stone was found high among those who had genetic predisposition, less frequency of urination per day and those who consumed red meat once a month or more. Patients and local community should be educated to reduce the red meat consumption and increase the consumption of water and fluid, especially during the hot climates.