Green tea intake and risk of incident kidney stones: Prospective cohort studies in middle-aged and elderly Chinese individuals

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate the association between green tea intake and incident stones in two large prospective cohorts.

Methods: We examined self-reported incident kidney stone risk in the Shanghai Men's Health Study (n = 58 054; baseline age 40-74 years) and the Shanghai Women's Health Study (n = 69 166; baseline age 40-70 years). Information on the stone history and tea intake was collected by in-person surveys. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were adjusted for baseline demographic variables, medical history and dietary intakes including non-tea oxalate from a validated food frequency questionnaire.

Results: During 319 211 and 696 950 person-years of follow up, respectively, 1202 men and 1451 women reported incident stones. Approximately two-thirds of men and one-quarter of women were tea drinkers at baseline, of whom green tea was the primary type consumed (95% in men, 88% in women). Tea drinkers (men: hazard ratio 0.78, 95% confidence interval 0.69-0.88; women: hazard ratio 0.8, 95% confidence interval 0.77-0.98) and specifically green tea drinkers (men: hazard ratio 0.78, 95% confidence interval 0.69-0.88; women: hazard ratio 0.84, 95% confidence interval 0.74-0.95) had lower incident risk than never/former drinkers. Compared with never/former drinkers, a stronger dose-response trend was observed for the amount of dried tea leaf consumed/month by men (hazard ratio_{highest category} 0.67, 95% confidence interval 0.56-0.80, P_trend < 0.001) than by women (hazard ratio_{highest category} 0.87, 95% confidence interval 0.70-1.08, P_trend = 0.041).

Conclusions: Green tea intake is associated with a lower risk of incident kidney stones, and the benefit is observed more strongly among men.

Keywords: adult; diet; kidney calculi; prospective studies; risk factors.