Diabetes mellitus and male osteoporosis. Is there a relationship?

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the relationship between male osteoporosis and type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM).

METHODS: We screened 154 male Saudi Arabian patients over the age of 50 years for osteoporosis between May and December 2005, at the Endocrine and Orthopedic Clinics of King Fahd University Hospital, Al-Khobar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Patients body mass index was calculated. Fasting blood glucose was measured in all patients. All patients with type 2 DM hemoglobin A1c levels were measured at follow up. All had bone mineral density (BMD) measurement of hip area and the lumbar spine using the dual energy x-ray absorptiometry scan, and osteoporosis and osteopenia was assessed on the basis of the World Health Organization guidelines. The data was entered in the database and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences software with statistical significance of <0.05 and a confidence interval of 95%.

RESULTS: There were 57 patients in group A (type 2 DM) with an average age of 59.76 years, 34 in group B (impaired fasting glucose) with an average age of 60.90 years and 63 in group C (normal glucose level), with an average age of 62.53 years. Bone mineral density analysis revealed 10 patients (17.5%) in group A, 7 (20%) in group B and 12 (19%) in group C were normal. Analysis did not show any statistical significance among the 3 groups with regard to BMD, T-Score and Z-Score.

CONCLUSION: The study indicates that the prevalence of osteopenia and osteoporosis is common among the Saudi Arabian males. The presence of type 2 diabetes mellitus in these patients did not influence or increase the incidence of osteopenia or osteoporosis.