Association between trajectories of fasting plasma glucose and risk of osteoporosis in non-diabetic and diabetic populations

Abstract

Introduction: Previous studies based on a single measure of fasting plasma glucose (FPG) showed an inconsistent conclusion about the association between FPG and osteoporosis risk. Not accounting for time-varying and cumulative average of FPG over time could bias the true relation between FPG and osteoporosis. Our study aims to investigate the association between the trajectories of FPG and osteoporosis risk for non-diabetic and diabetic populations.

Methods: A total of 18,313 participants who attended physical examinations during 2008-2018 were included. They were free of osteoporosis at their first physical examination and followed until their last physical examination before December 31, 2018. We recorded their incidence of osteoporosis and at least three FPG values during follow-up. Their longitudinal FPG trajectories were identified by the latent class growth analysis model based on the changes in FPG. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to analyze the association between the trajectories of FPG and osteoporosis diagnosed in the follow-up physical examination in both non-diabetics and diabetics.

Results: There were 752 incident osteoporosis among 16,966 non-diabetic participants, and 57 incident osteoporosis among 1,347 diabetic participants. Among non-diabetics, the elevated-increasing FPG trajectory was negatively associated with osteoporosis risk in women (odds ratio (OR), 0.62; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.43-0.88). Premenopausal women with elevated-increasing FPG trajectory had lower osteoporosis risk than those women with normal-stable FPG trajectory (OR, 0.41; 95% CI, 0.20-0.88), while this association was insignificant in postmenopausal women. Among diabetics, those whose longitudinal FPG is kept at a very high level had the highest risk of osteoporosis (OR, 3.09; 95% CI, 1.16-8.22), whereas those whose FPG starts with the high level and keeps on increasing did not exhibit a significantly increased risk (OR, 1.75; 95% CI, 0.81-3.76) compared with those who keep stable moderate-high level of FPG, except in men (OR, 2.49; 95% CI, 1.02-6.12).

Conclusion: Distinct trajectories of FPG are associated with differential risk of osteoporosis in non-diabetic and diabetic populations. Controlling a proper FPG level in different populations is necessary for osteoporosis prevention.

Keywords: diabetes; fasting plasma glucose levels; osteoporosis; physical examination; trajectory analyses.