Lifestyle factors and the risk of gallstones: results from the national health and nutrition examination survey 2018–2020 and mendelian randomization analysis

Abstract

Objectives

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between lifestyle and gallstones.

Materials and Methods

We performed an observational study using the 2018–2020 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Univariate and multivariate-adjusted logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the correlations between lifestyle factors and gallstone risk. Second, Mendelian randomization (MR) was applied to decrease the causal relationship between lifestyle factors and gallstones.

Results

This observational study enrolled 11,970 individuals. The risk of gallstones was found to increase with increased sitting time (odds ratio (OR) 1.03, 95% CI 1.00–1.05, p = 0.02). In contrast, the risk of gallstones was found to decrease with recreational activity (OR 0.50, 95% CI 0.29–0.87, p = 0.02). The results of the MR also showed that time spent watching television (OR 1.646; 95% CI 1.161–2.333, p = 0.005) and physical activity (OR 0.953, 95% CI 0.924–0.988, p = 0.003) remained independently causally associated with gallstones.

Conclusions

Prolonged sitting increases the risk of gallstones, whereas recreational activity reduces the risk. These findings need to be verified in further prospective cohort studies with larger sample sizes and longer follow-up periods.

Keywords:

• Gallstone
• lifestyle
• NHANES
• mendelian randomization analysis
• sitting time

Ethical approval

Publicly available datasets were analyzed in this study. This data can be found at: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/index.htm.

Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful to Professor Jing Zhang in TongrenHospital Shanghai Jiao Tong University School Of Medicine for her assistance in statistical analysis of this study.

Author contributions

Conception, design, and critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content (XM, DX), data analysis, interpretation of results, and manuscript drafting (CS, XL), data collection (ZX, HS, CH).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China [No. 82270598], National Natural Science Foundation of China [No. 82100675] and Excellent Youth Foundation of the First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University [2021Y12].