It has been attributed that diabetes mellitus (DM) and osteoarthritis (OA) are associated with each other via diabetic peripheral neuropathy leading to muscle weakness and joint laxity in OA. Hence, to expand knowledge in this regard, this study was employed further to show whether T2DM- type II diabetes mellitus is a risk factor for HOA- osteoarthritis of the hand or not.          

Emerging evidence suggests that diabetes may be a risk factor for osteoarthritis (OA). However, previous results on the association between diabetes and all OA were conflicting. We aimed to comprehensively analyse the association between type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and osteoarthritis of the hand (HOA) specifically.

We conducted a matched (1:1) case–control study using the UK-based Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) of cases aged 30–90 years with an incident diagnosis of HOA from 1995 to 2013. In multivariable conditional logistic regression analyses, we calculated odds ratios (OR) for incident HOA in patients with T2DM, categorized by T2DM severity (HbA1C), duration, and pharmacological treatment. We further performed sensitivity analyses in patients with and without other metabolic diseases (hypertension (HT), hyperlipidaemia (HL), obesity).

Among 13,500 cases and 13,500 controls, we observed no statistically significant association between T2DM and HOA (OR 0.95, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.87–1.04), regardless of T2DM severity, duration, or pharmacological treatment. Having HT did not change the OR. Although we observed slightly increased ORs in overweight T2DM patients with co-occurring HL with or without coexisting HT, none of these ORs were statistically significant.

Our results provide evidence that T2DM is not an independent risk factor for HOA. Concurrence of T2DM with HT, HL, and/or obesity did not change this association significantly.