Dietary selenium intake and the risk of kidney stones in adults, an analysis of 2007-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a cross-sectional study.

Purpose: To evaluate the association between dietary selenium intake and the risk of kidney stones in adults.

Materials And Methods: We performed a cross-sectional analysis using data from 2007 to 2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Dietary intake information of 30,184 participants was obtained using first 24-h dietary recall interview, and kidney stones were presented by a standard questionnaire. The quartile analysis, stratified analysis and non-linearity analysis were used to estimate the association between dietary selenium intake and kidney stones after an adjustment for potential confounders.

Results: The multiple logistic regression indicated that the fourth quantile (Q4) of dietary selenium intake had a lower risk of kidney stones than the first quantile (Q1) in Model 3 (OR 0.82, < 0.05). The stratified analyses indicated there were statistical differences between dietary selenium intake and kidney stones among younger (age < 50) (OR 0.65, < 0.01), male (OR 0.73, < 0.01) and overweight/obese (BMI ≥ 25.0) (OR 0.80, < 0.05) individuals in Model 3. The non-linear relationship was founded between dietary selenium intake and kidney stones in all participants, younger, male and overweight/obese individuals after adjusting for confounding factors.

Conclusion: Our study revealed an inverse relation between the level of dietary selenium intake and the risk of kidney stones for the United States population, especially for younger (age < 50), male and overweight/obese (BMI ≥ 25.0) individuals. The study provides preliminary guidance on dietary selenium intake for the prevention of kidney stones in different populations. Further studies are required to confirm our findings and clarified the biological mechanisms.