Causal associations between 45 dietary intake habits and urolithiasis: insights from genetic studies

Different dietary habits can have varying effects on human health and metabolism, and these can be intervened and regulated. Kidney stones, as a disease caused by multiple factors, are largely attributed to diet and metabolism, but the potential causal relationship with dietary intake habits remains unclear. Therefore, this study aims to link the predicted dietary intake based on 45 genetic factors with urolithiasis and explore the potential causal relationship.

We extracted complete genome-wide association studies (GWASs) data on 45 dietary intake traits from the UK Biobank study. Data on kidney stones were obtained from the FinnGen database. In both univariable and multivariable Mendelian randomization analyses, we used inverse variance weighted (IVW) as the primary method to calculate P values, odds ratios (ORs), and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). We examined result heterogeneity using Cochran's Q test. We also carefully investigated potential sources of horizontal pleiotropy using the Mendelian randomization (MR)-PRESSO and MR-Egger methods, and conducted linkage disequilibrium score regression (LDSC) analysis on the corrected P values.

Through univariable analysis, we identified 11 dietary habits that potentially causally associate with kidney stones among the 45 examined traits, including 9 protective factors and 2 risk factors. Based on the corrected results with false discovery rate (FDR) and sensitivity analysis, we found one relatively robust evidence. We controlled for common stone risk factors, such as body mass index and smoking, as confounders in multivariable analysis, and no significant results were observed after controlling for these confounders. Based on the LDSC analysis, most of the evidence supports significant genetic correlations with urolithiasis among the 11 traits with potential causal associations.

This study confirms the impact of certain dietary factors on the development of kidney stones. Our findings contribute to providing evidence for dietary adjustments in daily life or dietary guidance specifically targeting kidney stone patients.