Alcohol Intake and Prevalent Kidney Stone: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2007–2018

The association of alcohol intake with kidney stone disease (KSD) is not clear based on current clinical evidence. We examined the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2007-2018 and used logistic regression analyses to determine the independent association between alcohol intake and prevalent KSD. In total, 29,684 participants were eligible for the final analysis, including 2840 prevalent stone formers (SFs). The mean alcohol intake was 37.0 ± 2.4 g/day among SFs compared to 42.7 ± 0.9 among non-SFs (<i>p</i> = 0.04). Beer [odds ratio (OR) = 0.76, 95% CI: 0.61-0.94, <i>p</i> = 0.01] and wine (OR = 0.75, 95% CI: 0.59-0.96, <i>p</i> = 0.03) intakes were strongly associated with lower odds of prevalent KSD, while liquor intake had no association. Furthermore, the effects of beer and wine intakes on stone formation were dose-dependent. The OR for comparing participants drinking 1-14 g/day of beer to non-drinkers was 1.41 (95%CI: 0.97-2.05, <i>p</i> = 0.07), that of >14-≤28 g/day of beer to non-drinkers was 0.65 (95% CI: 0.42-1.00, <i>p</i> = 0.05), that of >28-≤56 g/day of beer to non-drinkers was 0.60 (95% CI: 0.39-0.93, <i>p</i> = 0.02), and that of >56 g/day of beer to non-drinkers was 0.34 (95% CI: 0.20-0.57, <i>p</i> < 0.001). Interestingly, the effect of wine intake was only significant among participants drinking moderate amounts (>14-28 g/day), with an OR of 0.54 (95% CI: 0.36-0.81, <i>p</i> = 0.003) compared to non-drinkers, but this effect was lost when comparing low-level (1-14 g/day) and heavy (>28 g/day) wine drinkers to non-drinkers. These effects were consistent in spline models. This study suggests that both moderate to heavy beer intake and moderate wine intake are associated with a reduced risk of KSD. Future prospective studies are needed to clarify the causal relationship.