Kidney stones affect more than one in ten Americans, incidence has been increasing, and 50% of patients will experience a recurrence within five years of a stone episode. Dietary factors are estimated to contribute to 50% of kidney stone cases and dietary modification is known to help prevent kidney stone recurrence. The majority of dietary research in the kidney stone population has focused on foods common to the traditional Western diet, leaving providers treating ethnically diverse populations without specific guidance regarding dietary modification for the prevention of kidney stones. As Latinos are estimated to make up 25% of the US population by 2050, determining dietary risk factors and making culturally relevant recommendations will prove increasingly important to preventing recurrent kidney stone episodes.
Using a food frequency questionnaire validated in Latinos, we propose to study the diet of Latino kidney stone formers, comparing it to a group of controls without kidney stones. We will correlate the intake of known lithogenic (pro-kidney-stone-forming) macro- and micro-nutrients with 24-hour urine studies in the kidney stone group to validate the relationship between diet and urinary risk factors for forming kidney stones. We will also correlate these dietary risk factors with kidney stone severity. Finally, we will identify individual food items that may disproportionately contribute to the dietary risk of kidney stone formation and use these to build more culturally relevant dietary recommendations for the prevention of kidney stones in Latinos. Using this study as preliminary data, our ultimate goal is to carry out larger validation studies that would allow more sophisticated dietary profiling and correlation with urinary parameters and stone severity and to design prospective trials that test the effectiveness of using these dietary recommendations to reduce kidney stone recurrence in Latinos.