Association between diabetes mellitus and osteoarthritis: systematic literature review and meta-analysis

To investigate the prevalence of osteoarthritis (OA) in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) and prevalence of DM in patients with OA and whether OA and DM are associated.

A systematic literature review and meta-analysis. We included cohort, case-control and cross-sectional studies assessing the number of patients with DM and/or OA. The mean prevalence of OA among patients with DM and DM among patients with OA was calculated. Data from trials assessing an association of diabetes and OA were pooled and results are presented as unadjusted OR and 95% CI.

From the 299 publications, we included 49 studies in the analysis, including 28 cross-sectional studies, 11 cohort studies and 10 case-control studies. In all, 21, 5 and 23 articles involved patients with OA exclusively, patients with DM and the general population, respectively. For 5788 patients with DM, the mean OA prevalence was 29.5±1.2%. For 645 089 patients with OA, the prevalence of DM was 14.4±0.1%. The risk of OA was greater in the DM than non-DM population (OR=1.46 (1.08 to 1.96), p=0.01), as was DM in the OA than non-OA population (OR=1.41 (1.21 to 1.65), p<0.00 001). Among the 12 studies reporting an OR adjusted on at least the body mass index, 5 showed no association of DM and OA and 7 identified DM as an independent risk factor.

This meta-analysis highlights a high frequency of OA in patients with DM and an association between both diseases, representing a further step towards the individualisation of DM-related OA within a metabolic OA phenotype.