The impact of anxiety on the risk of kidney stone disease: Insights into eGFR-mediated effects.

BACKGROUND

Previous studies have linked kidney stone disease (KSD) with depression, but there are no reports on the relationship between anxiety and KSD, and the mechanism underlying the potential relationship remains unclear.

METHODS

Associations of anxiety and incident KSD were assessed in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHENES) using multivariate logistic regression. Two-sample bidirectional Mendelian randomization studies and a two-step two-sample MR was used to estimate the mediating factors that influence KSD risk.

RESULTS

Examinations of NHANES data revealed that a rise in the frequency and intensity of anxiety were independently associated with incident KSD. In MR analysis, anxiety (uk-a-51 and uk-b-6519) were from the UK Biobank, with sample sizes of 328,717 and 450,765 respectively. KSD data were from the FinnGen, including 8597 cases and 333,128 controls. In the IVW analysis, genetically predicted anxieties (ukb-a-51 and ukb-b-6519) were found to be causally associated with a higher risk of KSD, with odds ratios of 6.18 (95 % CI 2.54-15.04) and 3.44 (95 % CI 1.67-7.08), respectively. There were no reverse causal effects. Further mediation analysis indicated that anxiety increases the risk of KSD by raising eGFR, through which 11.8 % of the effect of anxiety on KSD risk was mediated.

LIMITATIONS

The research was confined to individuals of European heritage, and there could be specific genetic variances among diverse ethnicities.

CONCLUSION

The current study suggests anxiety as an independent causal risk factor for KSD and unveils a new pathogenic mechanism, showing that anxiety raises eGFR, thereby increasing the risk of KSD.