the relationship between type 2 diabetes mellitus and osteoporosis in elderly people: a cross-sectional study

diabetes mellitus (dm) and osteoporosis are common diseases and their prevalence increases with age. several investigations have indicated that type 1 dm has a significant relationship with bone loss, whereas in type 2 diabetes, this relationship is controversial. therefore, this study was conducted to determine the relationship between osteoporosis and type 2 dm in elderly people. this population-based study had been carried out on 1151 elderly people in amirkola, northern iran. l2-l4 lumbar spine bone mass and the left femoral neck density were measured by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (dexa). in addition, diagnosis of diabetes was done by measuring fasting blood sugar (twice times fbs ≥ 126 mg/dl), according to the who criteria or self-reported as well as based on a doctor's prescription. of total, 362 (31.45%) of patients had dm. the average age of diabetic patients was 68.9± 6.93 years and in non-diabetic group was 68.68± 7.09 years (p= 0.18). the mean l2-l4 lumbar spine bone mass in the diabetic group was 0.90± 0.19 g/cm2 and in the non-diabetic group was 0.85± 0.18 g/cm2 (p= 0.001). the mean lumbar bone mineral density was higher (p= 0.0001) in diabetic men than in non-diabetic men, as well as in women (p= 0.0001). in addition, the mean femoral neck density in diabetic group was 0.85± 0.16 g/cm2 and in the non-diabetic group was 0.84± 0.15 g/cm2 (p= 0.48). moreover, the femoral neck bone mineral density in diabetic men was higher than in non-diabetics (p= 0.03), whereas in diabetic and non-diabetic women, there was no significant difference (p= 0.52). our results demonstrated that the mean lumbar and femur bone mineral densities in older people with type 2 dm was higher than people without dm.