Association between kidney stones and life's essential 8: a population-based study

Background Kidney stones exhibit a robust correlation with cardiovascular disease (CVD).

The objective of this research is to investigate the correlation between kidney stones and Life's Essential 8 (LE8), a newly updated assessment of cardiovascular health (CVH), among adults in the United States.

Methods In this study, which analyzed data from the 2007–2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, we employed LE8 scores (ranging from 0 to 100) as the independent variable, classifying them into low, moderate, and high CVH categories.

The research examined the relationship between LE8 scores and kidney stones by using multivariate logistic regression and restricted cubic spline models, with kidney stones as the dependent variable.

Results Out of the 14,117 participants in this research, the weighted mean LE8 score was 69.70 ± 0.27.

After accounting for confounding factors, there was an inverse association between higher LE8 scores and the likelihood of developing kidney stones (OR of 0.81 per 10-point increase, with a 95% confidence interval of 0.77–0.85), demonstrating a non-linear dose–response pattern.

Similar patterns were observed for health behaviors, health factor scores, and kidney stones.

Stratified analyses demonstrated a stable negative correlation between LE8 scores and kidney stones across different subgroups.

Conclusion LE8 and its subscale scores exhibited a robust and inverse correlation with the occurrence of kidney stones.

Encouraging adherence to optimal CVH levels has the potential to serve as an effective strategy in preventing and minimizing the occurrence of kidney stones.