Background: Diabetes confers an increased risk of fracture. However, whether prediabetes is also a risk factor of osteoporotic fracture has not been comprehensively examined. We performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the relationship between prediabetes and osteoporotic fracture risk.
Methods: This meta-analysis included relevant prospective cohort studies from Medline, Embase, and Web of Science databases. A random-effect model after incorporation of the intra-study heterogeneity was selected to pool the results. Subgroup analyses were applied to evaluate the influences of study characteristics on relationship between prediabetes and osteoporotic fracture risk.
Results: Eight studies including 33,136 community dwelling adult patients were included, and 7429 (22.4%) patients were prediabetic. Prediabetes was not independently associated with a higher risk of osteoporotic fracture compared with normoglycemia (adjusted risk ratio: 1.03, 95% confidence interval: 0.88-1.21, P = 0.69, I2 = 42%). Sensitivity limited to the elderly population showed consistent results (RR: 1.10, 95% CI: 0.91-1.24, P = 0.15, I2 = 0%). Subgroup analysis suggested that prediabetes defined by HbA1c (approximately 5.7%-6.4%) was associated with a higher risk of osteoporotic fracture (RR: 1.24, 95% CI: 1.01-1.53, P = 0.04), but not that defined by impaired fasting glucose or impaired glucose tolerance (P = 0.60). Sex, follow-up duration, and adjustment of bone mineral density did not significantly affect the outcome.
Conclusions: Current evidence does not support that prediabetes is independently associated with osteoporotic fracture risk. Different definitions of prediabetes may affect the association between prediabetes and osteoporotic fracture risk.
Keywords: meta-analysis; osteoporotic fracture; prediabetes; prospective; risk.
© 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.