Body weight gain as the major risk factor of cholelithiasis in women and an important risk factor in man.

PURPOSE The power of correlation was assessed between chosen risk factors of cholelithiasis in order to establish the ranking of these factors in Podlasie inhabitants. MATERIAL AND METHODS The study involved 169 patients hospitalized due for cholelithiasis (study group) and 202 patients without cholelithiasis (control group). Previous exposure of patients of both groups to the chosen risk factors of cholelithiasis was evaluated (based on a history questionnaire designed by the authors of the study). Two models of logistic regression were prepared (for men and women) for multivariate analysis. RESULTS The ranking of the risk factors of cholelithiasis was established by analysing multiple correlation coefficients for the two models of logistic regression and their significance was determined with Wald's test. The significant risk factors for women included: overweight and obesity, age, diabetes, use of contraceptive pills, while for men these were: age, serum triglycerol level, obesity. CONCLUSIONS The knowledge of risk factors of cholelithiasis in our population is the essence of health promoting actions. Obesity is the major risk factor in women and statistically significant in men. Promotion of appropriate eating habits can result in body mass reduction and may thus indirectly decrease other risk factors of cholelithiasis (incidence of type II diabetes and serum triglycerol level).