Urinary tract stones and osteoporosis. Findings from the Women's Health Initiative - Abstract

Kidney and bladder stones (urinary tract stones) and osteoporosis are prevalent, serious conditions for postmenopausal women.

Men with kidney stones are at increased risk of osteoporosis; however, the relationship of urinary tract stones to osteoporosis in postmenopausal women has not been established. The purpose of this study was to determine whether urinary tract stones are an independent risk factor for changes in bone mineral density (BMD) and incident fractures in women in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI). Data were obtained from 150,689 women in the Observational Study and Clinical Trials of the WHI with information on urinary tract stones status; 9,856 of these women reported urinary tract stones at baseline and/or incident urinary tract stones during follow-up. Cox regression models were used to determine the association of urinary tract stones with incident fractures and linear mixed models were used to investigate the relationship of urinary tract stones with changes in BMD that occurred during WHI. Follow-up was over an average of eight years. Models were adjusted for demographic and clinical factors, medication use and dietary histories. In unadjusted models there was a significant association of urinary tract stones with incident total fractures (HR 1.10 (95% CI 1.04-1.17)). However, in covariate adjusted analyses, urinary tract stones were not significantly related to changes in BMD at any skeletal site or to incident fractures. In conclusion, urinary tract stones in postmenopausal women are not an independent risk factor for osteoporosis.

Written by:
Carbone LD, Hovey KM, Andrews CA, Thomas F, Sorensen MD, Crandall CJ, Watts NB, Bethel M, Johnson KC.   Are you the author?
Charlie Norwood Veterans Affairs, Georgia Regents University, Augusta, Georgia; Department of Medicine, Section of Rheumatology, Georgia Regents University, Augusta, Georgia; Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health, School of Public Health and Health Professions, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY; Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI; Department of Preventive Medicine, University of TN Health Science Center, Memphis, TN; Division of Urology, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA; Department of Urology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA; David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles, CA; Mercy Health Osteoporosis and Bone Health Services, Cincinnati, OH.

Reference: J Bone Miner Res. 2015 May 19. Epub ahead of print.
doi: 10.1002/jbmr.2553


PubMed Abstract
PMID: 25990099

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