Temporal Trends in Incidence of Kidney Stones Among Children: A 25-Year Population Based Study

Purpose: We conducted a population based pediatric study to determine the incidence of symptomatic kidney stones during a 25-year period and to identify factors related to variation in stone incidence during this period. Materials and Methods: The Rochester Epidemiology Project was used to identify all patients younger than 18 years who were diagnosed with kidney stones in Olmsted County, Minnesota from 1984 to 2008. Medical records were reviewed to validate first time symptomatic stone formers with identification of age appropriate symptoms plus stone confirmation by imaging or passage. The incidence of symptomatic stones by age, gender and study period was compared. Clinical characteristics of incident stone formers were described. Results: A total of 207 children received a diagnostic code for kidney stones, of whom 84 (41%) were validated as incident stone formers. The incidence rate increased 4% per calendar year (p = 0.01) throughout the 25-year period. This finding was due to a 6% yearly increased incidence in children 12 to 17 years old (p = 0.02 for age x calendar year interaction) with an increase from 13 per 100,000 person-years between 1984 and 1990 to 36 per 100,000 person-years between 2003 and 2008. Computerized tomography identified the stone in 6% of adolescent stone formers (1 of 18) from 1984 to 1996 vs 76% (34 of 45) from 1997 to 2008. The incidence of spontaneous stone passage in adolescents did not increase significantly between these 2 periods (16 vs 18 per 100,000 person-years, p = 0.30). Conclusions: The incidence of kidney stones increased dramatically among adolescents in the general population during a 25-year period. The exact cause of this finding remains to be determined.