Epidemiology of urolithiasis in Europe and Latin America

BACKGROUND: The epidemiology of urolithiasis may vary in different geographical areas in relation to various environmental factors; therefore it is important to review the information on its prevalence and incidence in different countries of the world. The aim of this study was to conduct an updated systematic review and meta-analysis on the prevalence and incidence of urinary calculi in Europe and Latin America. METHODS: Two separate searches were performed on EMBASE and PubMed databases. The MESH terms used were "prevalence", "incidence", "epidemiology" "urinary calculi" in title or abstract. Each separate search focused on a specific geographic area: Europe or Latin America, which included Southern America, Central America and the Caribbean. Publications between January 1, 1981, and February 28, 2026 were included. We retrieved 1,234 records in PubMed and 7,140 in EMBASE for Europe and 152 records in PubMed and 963 in EMBASE for Latin America. Two independent reviewers screened articles based on a priori protocol. Studies reporting population-based estimates of urinary calculi prevalence or incidence in children and adults were included. In total, 66 and 17 studies were included in the systematic review for Europe and Latin America, respectively. For Europe, 11 studies reported data on both prevalence and incidence, 24 on prevalence and 31 on incidence. For Latin America, 10 studies reported prevalence data and 7 studies reported incidence data. RESULTS: Random-effects models using the Freeman-Tukey double-arcsine transformation produced a pooled prevalence of kidney stones in Europe of 7.2% (95% CI, 5.55% to 9.05%). Pooled prevalence was 7.03% (95% CI, 5.14% to 9.18%) in Southern/Mediterranean/Balkan Europe and 7.52% (95% CI, 4.50% to 11.24%) in Central/Northern Europe. Pooled prevalence of kidney stones for studies published before year 2000 was 7.37% (95% CI, 4.53% to 10.81%) and 7.11% (95% CI, 5.31% to 9.15%) for studies published in 2000 and later. A meta-regression model indicated that the prevalence of kidney stones was not detectably different in Northern compared with Southern Europe and in study published before compared with those published after 2000. Pooled prevalence of kidney stones in Latin America was 6.02% (95% CI, 3.58% to 9.03%). Study heterogeneity was deemed as "considerable" either in studies in Europe (I2 = 99.86%, p<0.0001) and Latin America (I2 = 99.09%, p< .0001). The overall risk of bias was low to moderate. Incidence values are highly variable depending on the study design and the populations studied. In 3 studies on pediatric populations, incidence ranged between 1.8 and 6.5 cases per year per 100,000 inhabitants. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence values of urolithiasis were not different across different areas of Europe and have remained stable over the last 20 years. The prevalence of urolithiasis in Latin America appears to be lower compared to Europe.