Prevalence of Upper Limb Musculoskeletal Disorders in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Mashhad, Iran

Background and objective: 11.4% of the Iranian population aged 25 to 64 years suffer from type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Some of the musculoskeletal disorders are more frequent in patients with T2DM, which significantly affects their quality of life. Yet, prevalence of these disorders is not well known in Iran. The purpose of this study was to determine prevalence of upper limb musculoskeletal disorders in T2DM patients. Materials and Method: In this cross-sectional study we examined 80 diabetic patients, who referred to the clinic of endocrinology in 22 Bahman academic hospital and Parsian Diabetes Clinic in Mashhad in 2016. Convenience sampling was performed in the study to choose participants. The sample size was chosen according to the study of Douloumpakas, who reported the prevalence of the musculoskeletal disorders 6.82% and by considering 99% of confidence interval. Exclusion criteria were having a history of other metabolic diseases, surgery, trauma and fractures of the upper limb. Demographic characteristics and prevalence of adhesive capsulitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, trigger finger and Dupuytren s Contracture was investigated. Informed consent forms were read and signed by all patients. This study was reviewed and approved by the Medical Research Ethics Committee. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 18. Findings: Overall 79 patients with T2DM were enrolled including 42 males (52.5%). The mean age was (58.4 ±10.7) and the majority of patients were 50-59 years old. Duration of the disease in most of the patients was less than 10 years old. Using Kolmogorov-Smirnov test showed that the distribution of demographic variables is normal (p <0.05). Eight adhesive capsulitis (10%), 3 trigger finger (3.75%) and 6 carpal tunnel syndrome patients (7.6%) were observed in our study. No Dupuytren s contracture patients were observed. Adhesive capsulitis was inversely correlated with duration of T2DM (p-value = 0.016, r = -0.13). further statistical analysis showed that Trigger finger was directly correlated with age (p-value = 0.016, r = -0.13), carpal tunnel syndrome was significantly associated with female gender (p = 0.007) and also the HbA1C level below 7 showed a slightly significant relationship with adhesive capsulitis and carpal tunnel syndrome (both p-values = 0.05). Conclusion: In fact, this study tried to reveal evidence for the importance of musculoskeletal complications in diabetic patients. In addition, age and female gender were identified as risk factor for carpal tunnel syndrome. It would be helpful to value importance of these disorders in prevention and rehabilitation of diabetic patients.

کلیدواژه ها:

Diabetes mellitus ، musculoskeletal disorder ، trigger finger