Incidence of fractures in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus—a retrospective study with 4420 patients

Summary This retrospective study investigated the incidence of fracture in 4420 type 1 diabetes (T1DM) patients. Our findings indicate that patients with T1DM have an increased incidence of fractures. Further studies and preventive measures are urgently needed. Introduction The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence of fracture in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). Methods This study is based on the German Disease Analyzer database and included 4258 adult individuals with a T1DM diagnosis documented between January 2000 and December 2015 in 1203 general practices in Germany. Individual matching of T1DM and non-diabetic patients was performed. The cumulative incidence of new fractures was shown for up to 10 years after the index date using Kaplan-Meier curves. Cox proportional hazard models (dependent variable: incident fracture) were used to estimate the effect of T1DM on fracture incidence, as well as the effect of predefined variables on fracture incidence. Results After 10 years of follow-up, the cumulative fracture incidence was 18.4% for T1DM patients and 9.9% for non-diabetic patients ( p