Mortality and burden of disease associated with kidney stone disease in children and young persons (<20 years): Trends in Europe between 1990-2019 according to the Global Burden of Disease database.

Introduction: The incidence of urolithiasis in children has increased. However, research regarding the associated mortality burden group is lacking. Our objective was to evaluate trends across Europe.s.

Material and methods: Data on mortalities associated with urolithiasis in persons under 20 years was obtained from the Global Burden of Disease database for the period 1990-2019. Data included demographic information such as gender and age as well mortality rate, crude number of deaths and disability adjusted life years (DALYs). Data was collected from the European region as defined by the World Health Organization.

Results: Over 30-year period and across 53 countries, there were 184 deaths (106 males, 78 females) recorded in persons <20 years. The highest crude number of deaths occurred in the 10-14-year-old group (n = 54), followed by 5-9 years (n = 53), 15-19 years (n = 52) and <5 years (n = 25). The distribution in the total number of deaths according to these age groups, did not change over time. Overall, there was a 73% decrease when comparing the number of deaths in 1990 with 2019. Between these two time points, the overall death rate also decreased from 0.006 to 0.002 per 100,000. Over time the gender gap narrowed in terms of the number of deaths and by 2019, the male to female ratio was at its lowest to date (1.2 : 1).

Conclusions: Mortality associated with kidney stone disease in children and young persons has improved in recent decades. More deaths have occurred among males, but this gender gap is narrowing.