Takeaway
- Patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) using metformin had lower odds of reporting recent back and knee pain, chronic back, knee and neck/shoulder pain and multisite musculoskeletal pain compared with those with T2D who were not taking metformin.
- Overall, associations were stronger among women.
Why this matters
- Findings suggest that metformin may have a protective effect for musculoskeletal pain, which appears to be stronger in women than men.
Study design
- This cross-sectional study included 21,889 patients with T2D (metformin users, 58%) using data from the UK Biobank.
- Funding: None.
Key results
- Patients treated with metformin were at a lower risk of musculoskeletal pain for (adjusted OR; 95% CI):
- back region (recent: 0.91; 0.85-0.97 and chronic: 0.87; 0.81-0.93);
- knee region (recent: 0.91; 0.85-0.97 and chronic: 0.87; 0.81-0.94); and
- neck/shoulder regions (chronic: 0.92; 0.85-0.99).
- No significant association was seen between metformin intake and the prevalence of hip pain (recent: 1.01; 0.93-1.09 and chronic: 0.99; 0.89-1.08).
- Metformin use was associated with a lower risk of recent (0.90; 0.83-0.97) and chronic (0.83; 0.77-0.90) multisite musculoskeletal pain.
- For recent (back and knee pain), chronic (knee and neck/shoulder pain) and recent multisite musculoskeletal pain, the association was only significant among women:
- recent back (0.82; 0.73-0.92) and knee pain (0.88; 0.79-0.89);
- chronic knee (0.86; 0.76-0.97) and neck/shoulder pain (0.86; 0.76-0.98); and
- recent multisite musculoskeletal pain (0.83; 0.77-0.90).
Limitations
- Study could not examine the dose-response effects of metformin on musculoskeletal pain.
This clinical summary originally appeared on Univadis, part of the Medscape Professional Network.