ORIGINAL ABSTRACT

It has been demonstrated that exposure to glyphosate (GLY) may result in the development of a number of diseases. The objective of this study was to ascertain whether there is a correlation between GLY exposure and the risk of developing kidney stones in adults residing in the United States. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 4178 patients from the 2013 to 2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. To explore the association between GLY exposure and the risk of developing kidney stones, dose-response analysis curves with restricted cubic barplots, logistic regression, propensity score matching, and subgroup analyses were employed. Of the 4178 participants, 443 self-reported having kidney stones. After adjusting for sex, age, race, education level, marital status, body mass index, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, recreational activities, and smoking and drinking status, we found that GLY exposure was positively associated with the risk of kidney stone prevalence. The patients were divided into 4 groups based on quartiles of urinary GLY levels and a logistic regression analysis was performed after adjusting for potential confounders. This analysis demonstrated a positive association between GLY exposure and the risk of kidney stones when compared with Q1 (OR = 1). The results indicated that the risk of developing kidney stones increased with increasing urinary GLY concentrations. The present study found a positive association between urinary GLY levels and the risk of developing kidney stones. This association can be prevented by reducing occupational exposure to GLY.