Despite recent advances regarding the role of diabetes with respect to cartilage metabolism, epidemiologic data to quantify the role of diabetes in the development of osteoarthritis (OA) are sparse.
OA patterns were studied in 809 patients with knee or hip joint replacement due to OA. NIDDM was defined by a history of physician diagnosed diabetes or use of antihyperglycemics.
Patients with NIDDM had more often bilateral OA (adjusted odds ratio (OR)=2.2; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.8-6.4). No association between NIDDM and generalized OA (adjusted OR= 1.0; 95%CI: 0.5-1.9) was observed.
Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that NIDDM might be a potentially important systemic risk factor for knee and hip OA, but chance cannot be ruled out as an alternative explanation.