Objectives: Kidney stones are a common urological disease with increasing incidence in numerous countries every year, and its risk factors and prevention are significant public health issues. This study examined the association of metabolic syndrome with incident kidney stones.
Methods: This study included 36 811 adults from the health checkup population (2018–2023). The Cox proportional hazards model was used to elucidate the relationship between metabolic syndrome, the number of metabolic components, metabolic syndrome components, and the risk of nephrolithiasis. This essay used stratified analyses to identify participants with higher incidence risk.
Results: During 93 965.97 person-years of follow-up, 573 participants developed nephrolithiasis. Participants with metabolic syndrome had a higher risk of nephrolithiasis than those without metabolic syndrome. Increasing odds of nephrolithiasis with increasing number of metabolic syndrometraits. Obesity and hypertension were significantly associated with the risk of nephrolithiasis. However, we did not find that it was nonlinearly associated with higher risks of nephrolithiasis among participants with obesity, hypertension, hyperglycemia, and dyslipidemia. Compared with participants without metabolic syndrome, those with metabolic syndrome had a 60.5% higher risk of nephrolithiasis (hazard ratio 1.605, 95% confidence interval 1.275,2.021). Metabolic syndrome, number of metabolic components, and metabolic syndrome composition were independent risk factors for kidney stones in males, whereas these variables were not associated with kidney stones in females.
Conclusions: Metabolic syndrome, the number of metabolic components, obesity, and hypertension were positively associated with increased risk for nephrolithiasis, which were only observed among men.