Abstract
A cross-section study of diabetic osteopenia was performed in 231 institutions throughout Japan on 10, 569 randomly selected patients with diabetes mellitus and 646 healthy control subjects. Based on six indices obtained by microdensitometry, the prevalence of osteopenia in diabetics was 20.1% throughout Japan, which was significantly higher than 7.9% in healthy control subjects. The prevalance of osteopenia in female patients was significantly higher than in males and than it was in age-and sex-matched controls. Prevalences of osteopenia in patients treated with insulin, oral anti diabetic agents and diet alone were 22.8, 20.3 and 16.0%, respectively, being higher in patients with insulin therapy and oral agents, compared to patients on diet alone. There were no significant difference in the prevalence of osteopenia between IDDM and NIDDM. The presence or absence of obesity had no significant effect. The prevalence of osteopenia increased during the first 5 years after the onset of diabetes, but remained almost constant thereafter. Patients with osteopenia had slightly but significantly higher prevalences of neuropathy, retinopathy and nephropathy.
