The impact of ambient temperature on the incidence of urolithiasis: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Objective This review aimed to confirm the association between ambient temperature and incidence of uroli-thiasis and evaluate the impact thereof. Methods A systematic literature review was performed up to September 2019 using multiple databases. The effect of temperature on urolithiasis risk was assessed using risk ratio (RR). Pearson correlation coefficient (Pear-son’s r) was used to evaluate the linear association between ambient temperature and urolithiasis incidence. The non-linear association between climatic temperature and the urolithiasis incidence was also evaluated. Results Twenty-four studies related to the temperature and urolithiasis risk in 14 different countries or regions of five continent involving over 2.5 million cases were included in the meta-analysis. High climatic or workplace temperature was a significant risk factor of urolithiasis. The weighted correlation coefficient (Pearson’s r) of monthly temperature and urolithiasis risk was 0.49 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.40–0.57], a moderate correlation (0.4