Type 1 Diabetes Is Associated With an Increased Risk of Fracture Across the Life Span: A Population-Based Cohort Study Using The Health Improvement Network (THIN)

OBJECTIVE This study was conducted to determine if type 1 diabetes is associated with an increased risk of fracture across the life span. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS This population-based cohort study used data from The Health Improvement Network (THIN) in the U.K. (data from 1994 to 2012), in which 30,394 participants aged 0–89 years with type 1 diabetes were compared with 303,872 randomly selected age-, sex-, and practice-matched participants without diabetes. Cox regression analysis was used to determine hazard ratios (HRs) for incident fracture in participants with type 1 diabetes. RESULTS A total of 334,266 participants, median age 34 years, were monitored for 1.9 million person-years. HR were lowest in males and females age CONCLUSIONS Type 1 diabetes was associated with increased risk of incident fracture that began in childhood and extended across the life span. Participants with type 1 diabetes sustained a disproportionately greater number of lower extremity fractures. These findings have important public health implications, given the increasing prevalence of type 1 diabetes and the morbidity and mortality associated with hip fractures.