To estimate the frequency of a comorbidity of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) and osteoarthrosis (OA) in relation to patient age and to identify risk factors for degenerative and dystrophic changes in the joints.
160 patients with type 2 diabetes (23 men and 137 women at the age of 44 to 82 years; body mass index 33 +/- 5 kg/m2 were examined. A control group consisted of 112 age- and gender-matched subjects without type 2 DM.
Degenerative and dystrophic changes in the joints were found in 60% of the patients with type 2 DM, which exceeded the similar values in the control subjects (42.9%; p < 0.05). Moreover, OA developed earlier in the patients with DM than in the general population, but the difference became leveled after the age 60 years. The development of OA was found to be associated with lipid metabolic disturbances: the incidence of obesity, hypercholesterolemia, and triglyceridemia was higher in the group of type 2 DM patients with OA (p < 0.05).
The patients with type 2 DM showed the higher incidence of OA, the age of disease manifestation is less than in the general population. DM and overweight are risk factors for OA.