Osteoarthritis (OA) and diabetes mellitus (DM) are major public health problems. Two recent systematic reviews concluded that DM and OA are related. Due to some methodological limitations, it remains unclear whether DM confers an increased independent risk for OA for the knee, hip, or hand OA. Therefore, the results of the present study demonstrated that impaired glucose metabolism is a risk factor for knee OA.

Osteoarthritis (OA) and diabetes (DM) two common concurrent chronic ailments. Although, whether this is due to mutual risk factors or may differ within joints is uncertain. This systematic analysis conducted to evaluate whether abnormal glucose metabolism is a risk factor for hand, knee, or hip OA, individually, independent of obesity and age.

EMBASE and Ovid Medline were searched systematically from beginning to October 2016 to find studies reporting glucose metabolism to osteoarthritis-associated outcomes. Studies associated OA and DM and the hand, knee, hip OA were analysed individually. In the structured synthesis, objective measures of DM and adjustment for obesity and age were also needed.

Out of 40 selected studies, 14 examined the hand and 28 the knee, and nine the hip. The objective measures of DM and knee OA with adjusted for age and obesity used by the five studies with a longitudinal component. Out of these, one found to have a reduction in risk, one with an increase in risk, and three found to have no connection. Further, out of the longitudinal studies investigating the association among DM and OA that estimated for obesity, none presented any evidence of an individualistic association of DM with hip or hand OA.

There is no evidence that impaired glucose metabolism is an independent risk factor for hip or hand OA and weak evidence that impaired glucose metabolism is a risk factor, for knee OA,  independent of obesity.