(Table 3).
Our study has some limitations. Firstly, we did not have a control group. Secondly, a relatively small number of patients with type 1 diabetes were included in our study. However, musculoskeletal disorders have been shown to occur more frequently in people with type 1 diabetes when compared with the non-diabetic subject.24 Next, we could not evaluate osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis in this study.
On the other hand, the prospective nature of the study, evaluation of the patients by the same physician, and a relatively large number of the study population could be designated as the strengths of the current paper. Furthermore, our results have shed light on the pathogenesis of musculoskeletal disorders by means of assessing the relationship between metabolic parameters and microvascular complications.
Therefore, we suggest that further larger prospective studies with control groups are required to understand the mechanisms and prevention of these frequent but under-studied complications of type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
As a result of our study, 45.9% (n = 322) of the 702 diabetic patients showed signs of musculoskeletal system disorders. The most common disorders were carpal tunnel syndrome, Dupuytren’s contracture, and adhesive capsulitis. Our study also draws attention to various risk factors that are effective in musculoskeletal system involvement in diabetes. These risk factors are age, duration of diabetes, HbA1c level as a marker of glycemic control, and presence of microvascular complications. A statistically significant relation was found between the duration of diabetes and all musculoskeletal disorders except Charcot arthropathy and between HbA1c level and Dupuytren’s contracture, carpal tunnel syndrome, and adhesive capsulitis. In addition, the frequency of musculoskeletal disorders increased with the presence of microvascular complications.