Type 2 Diabetes has detrimental effect on youth's bone density, finds study

USA: Around the age of peak bone mass, type 2 diabetes (T2D) may be detrimental to bone density, suggests a recent study in the journal Diabetes Care. The findings are significant given the increased risk of fracture in T2D adults.

There is an increasing incidence of youth-onset type 2 diabetes, an aggressive condition. T2D adults are at increased fracture risk despite normal areal bone mineral density (aBMD), but there is no information on the influence of diabetes on the growing skeleton. Joseph M. Kindler, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, and colleagues compared bone health in youth with type 2 diabetes to control patients with obesity or healthy weight.

The researchers conducted a cross-sectional study of youth (56% African American, 67% female) ages 10–23 years with type 2 diabetes (n = 180), obesity (BMI >95th; n = 226), or healthy weight (BMI <85th; n = 238). They assessed the whole body (less head) aBMD and lean mass as well as abdominal visceral fat via DXA. Lean BMI (LBMI) and aBMD SD scores (z scores) were computed using published reference data.