Women with type 1 diabetes have low bone density

Studies have found that older women with type 1 diabetes have a greater risk of bone fracture compared with non-diabetic women. "We hypothesised that this may be due to lower BMD at an earlier age in women with type 1 diabetes," lead investigator Dr Elsa S Strotmeyer told Reuters Health.

"Additionally," she noted, "there is some suggestion from elderly populations that cardiovascular disease may be related to lower BMD, and cardiovascular disease is a common complication of type 1 diabetes."

To test their theory, Strotmeyer and her associates compared the fracture history and BMD of 67 women with type 1 diabetes, between 35 and 55 years old, with the fracture history of 237 non-diabetic women matched for the same ethnicity, age and socioeconomic status.

Compared with the non-diabetics, diabetic women had lower BMD at various sites, including bones in the hip, thigh, heel and whole body, Strotmeyer noted.

The team reports in the February issue of Diabetes Care that the diabetic women were also significantly more likely to report having a bone fracture after age 20 (33.3 percent versus 22.6 percent).