Changes in gender distribution of urinary stone disease

Area of Science:

• Urology
• Public Health
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Historically, stone disease (urolithiasis) has been more prevalent in men.
• Recent shifts in lifestyle factors like diet, fluid intake, and obesity rates may be altering historical gender-specific incidence patterns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate evolving gender-specific trends in stone disease incidence and prevalence using population-based data.
• To determine if changes in lifestyle factors are associated with shifts in stone disease rates between men and women.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the State Ambulatory Surgical Database and State Inpatient Databases to identify procedures for renal colic and urolithiasis.
• Calculated population-based utilization rates by gender from 1998 to 2004.
• Employed Poisson regression models to analyze changes in utilization rates over the study period.

Main Results:

• Overall service utilization for stone disease increased in both men and women between 1998 and 2004.
• The rate of increase in stone disease utilization was significantly higher among women compared to men.
• While outpatient and ambulatory surgery center utilization rose for both genders, inpatient utilization specifically increased for women.

Conclusions:

• Resource utilization for stone disease continues to escalate, with a notable rise in women.
• Potential contributing factors to the increased incidence of stone disease in women include rising obesity rates, dietary modifications, and reduced fluid consumption.
• Further research is warranted to fully elucidate the multifactorial drivers behind these changing epidemiological trends.