Betel Nut Chewing Is Associated with the Risk of Kidney Stone Disease

Chun-Kai Chang; Jia-In Lee; Chu-Fen Chang; Yung-Chin Lee; Jhen-Hao Jhan; Hsun-Shuan Wang; Jung-Tsung Shen; Yao-Hsuan Tsao; Shu-Pin Huang; Jiun-Hung Geng

doi:10.3390/jpm12020126

Betel Nut Chewing Is Associated with the Risk of Kidney Stone Disease

J Pers Med. 2022 Jan 18;12(2):126. doi: 10.3390/jpm12020126.

Authors

Chun-Kai Chang^{1

2}, Jia-In Lee³, Chu-Fen Chang⁴, Yung-Chin Lee^{1

2}, Jhen-Hao Jhan^{1

2}, Hsun-Shuan Wang^{1

2}, Jung-Tsung Shen¹, Yao-Hsuan Tsao^{1

2}, Shu-Pin Huang^{2

5

6

7}, Jiun-Hung Geng^{1

2

5

6

7

8}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Urology, Kaohsiung Municipal Siaogang Hospital, Kaohsiung 812, Taiwan.
² Department of Urology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 80756, Taiwan.
³ Department of Psychiatry, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 80756, Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Physical Therapy, Tzu Chi University, Hualien 97004, Taiwan.
⁵ Department of Urology, Faculty of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 80756, Taiwan.
⁶ Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 80756, Taiwan.
⁷ Ph.D. Program in Environmental and Occupational Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 80756, Taiwan.
⁸ Research Center for Environmental Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 80756, Taiwan.

Abstract

(1) Background: Betel nut chewing injures bodily health. Although, the relationship between betel nut chewing and kidney stone disease (KSD) is unknown. (2) Methods: We analyzed 43,636 men from Taiwan Biobank. We divided them into two groups on the status of betel nut chewing, the never-chewer and ever-chewer groups. Self-reported diagnosed KSD was defined as the subject's medical history of KSD in the questionnaire. Logistic regression was used to analyze the association of betel nut chewing and the risk of KSD. (3) Results: The mean age of subjects in the present study was 50 years, and 16% were ever-chewers. KSD was observed in 3759 (10.3%) and 894 (12.6%) participants in the group of never-chewer and ever-chewer groups, respectively. Higher risk of KSD was found in participants with betel nut chewing compared with to without betel nut chewing (odds ratio (OR), 1.094; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 1.001 to 1.196). Furthermore, the daily amounts of betel nut chewing >30 quids was associated with a more than 1.5-fold increase (OR, 1.571; 95% CI, 1.186 to 2.079) in the odds of KSD; (4) Conclusions: Our study suggests that betel nut chewing is associated with the risk of KSD and warrants further attention to this problem.

Keywords: areca nut; betel nut; epidemiologic study; kidney stone disease; nephrolithiasis; risk factors.