• ENG

People with kidney stones more likely to suffer from osteoporosis and bone fractures: Study

People with kidney stones more likely to suffer from osteoporosis and bone fractures: Study

A new study suggests that people who have kidney stones are prone to osteoporosis and bone fractures. Read on to know more.

Written by Arushi Bidhuri |Updated : March 4, 2021 11:39 AM IST

Is a person who has kidney stones at risk of osteoporosis? With bone fractures and osteoporosis posing a serious threat to the health of an ageing adult, researchers were determined to know whether kidney stone disease was associated with an increased risk of osteoporosis. Both health problems are serious and could be dangerous to the wellbeing of an individual, so it is essential to know if there is a possible link between the two diseases. According to a new study published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, people who have kidney stones are susceptible to osteoporosis or bone fracture.

Older Men With Kidney Stones Are At A Higher Risk Of Osteoporosis

For the study, the team of researchers designed the analysis as a retrospective cohort study using data from the Veterans Health Administration database. For the study, the team analysed more than half a million patients with kidney stones between 2007 and 2015. Of the 531,431 patients investigated, 125,427 were found to had a diagnosis of osteoporosis or bone fracture. In other words, approximately one-quarter of individuals with kidney stones had a diagnosis of osteoporosis or bone fracture around the time of their kidney stone diagnosis. The results indicated that 23.6 per cent of the patients had osteoporosis at the time of their kidney stone diagnosis.

Osteoporosis, which is a bone-thinning disease, affects millions of people across the globe. As per the data by the National Osteoporosis Foundation, one in two women and up to one in four men over the age of 50 are prone to osteoporosis.

Also Read

More News

This is an important discovery as the findings will provide support for the wider use of bone density screening in individuals with kidney stones, especially middle=-aged and older men. Lead author Calyani Ganesan from Stanford University in the US said, "In our future work, we hope to identify which patients with kidney stones are at higher risk for osteoporosis or bone fracture to help guide bone density screening efforts by clinicians in this population."

But Postmenopausal Women With Kidney Stones Not At Risk Of Osteoporosis

While the above study suggests that older men are at a higher risk of osteoporosis or bone fractures if they have kidney stones, a 2015 study found that postmenopausal women with kidney or bladder stones are not at a higher risk of osteoporosis.

For this particular study, researchers analysed 150,000 postmenopausal women in the US National Institutes of Health's Women's Health Initiative study. As per the study results, there was no link between kidney or bladder stones and osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. But they found that these women were at a 15 per cent higher risk of developing subsequent kidney stones. The study was published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.