The impact of lifestyle stressors, menstrual pattern, and cardiometabolic risk factors on young females with cholelithiasis

Background: Lifestyle and nutritional transitions in the society driven by globalization have led to the rising burden of cholelithiasis. The present study was done to assess the impact of lifestyle, stress, menstrual pattern, and cardiometabolic risk factors on young females with cholelithiasis.

Materials and methods: A hospital-based case-control study was conducted on young females of 18-45 years. Cases and age-matched controls were compared on their lifestyle parameters like demography, marital status, occupation, educational status, family income, stress along with menstrual pattern, cardiometabolic parameters like anthropometric measures, blood pressure (BP), fasting blood sugar (FBS), and lipid profile. Chi-square test and unpaired t-test were used for the analysis of data using SPSS software, and P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: The majority of the cases were from rural areas, married, homemakers leading a comparatively sedentary lifestyle consuming more red meat, less literate, and belonged to a lower economic group with significantly more stress compared to controls. The age of menarche, neither the regularity nor irregularity of the menstrual cycle (regular cycle 21-35 days), showed any difference, but cases had significantly more pregnancies and usage of oral contraceptives compared to controls. Waist-height ratio, systolic BP, FBS, triglyceride, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) were significantly higher in cases. Cases had a 14.4 times more risk of developing metabolic syndrome when compared with controls.

Conclusion: Married, rural, less literate Indian women leading a sedentary lifestyle, consuming more of red meat, and soft drinks with increased psychosomatic stress are more prone to develop cholelithiasis. Women who use hormonal contraceptives have increased occurrence of cholelithiasis and they were more prone to develop metabolic syndrome. The need for the hour is health education, to implement simple lifestyle changes, thereby decreasing the incidence of cholelithiasis in young females.