Kidney Stones – Statistics

Transcript

Kidney stones are quite common. Latest estimates are that kidney stones affect about 8% of the population. And this number hasn’t been stable over time. In the 1970s, only 3% of the population had kidney stones. And this has been slowly increasing. Doctors think that this may have something to do with increasing obesity rates. Stones are also not uniform throughout the United States. There are some pockets of increased stone incidents, particularly in the Southwest, in a region known as the stone belt. There’s likely a few reasons for this. Some has to do with weather patterns. More heat, more dehydration can lead to kidney stones and also dietary patterns, excess weight and obesity in certain parts of the country. Generally speaking, men are at higher risk for kidney stones than women. 10% of men have kidney stones versus 7% of women.