Work

The effect of geography and climatic factors on the hospitality burden due to kidney stones in Spain 1997-2022.

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: The incidence of kidney stone disease (KSD) has been rising in the last decades, becoming a worldwide problem. Besides dietary factors, climatic conditions have also been identified as possible reasons for this. Our objective was to describe the hospitality burden due to KSD across different regions of Spain and relate it to different climatic conditions. Methods An observational retrospective study was conducted during the period 1997–2022 by analyzing hospitalization records from the minimum basic dataset. The data were related to climatic conditions (temperature, humidity, evaporation, and solar radiation) and were collected from the Spanish Meteorological Agency. Results A total of 980701 hospitalizations were collected, estimating a burden of 8.4 patients per 10000 inhabitants (CI95%: 8.4–8.4) in this period. A significant increasing trend with an annual percentage change of 2.14% (CI95%: 0.9–3.4), was observed in this period. Hospitalizations were higher in men 9.6 patients per 10000 inhabitants (CI95%: 9.6–9.7) than in women (8.2, CI95%: 8.2–8.3). Humidity was the only factor that reached a significant inverse correlation (r = −0.26(CI95%: −0.26, −0.26), keeping itself as an independent factor when linear regression was applied. The temperature, radiation, and evaporation were not statistically significant. A higher risk of hospitalization for KSD in spring (OR: 1.1; CI95%: 1.1–1.1) was also observed. Conclusions Our study confirms a significant rising trend of KSD hospitalizations with significant differences across different regions, which could be partially explained by changes in humidity values. Temperature, solar radiation, and evaporation did not seem to have any influence on KSD hospitalizations.

Source: Open Research Europe

DOI: 10.12688/openreseurope.23359.1