Range of motion in selected joints of diabetic and non-diabetic subjects.

The purpose of the study was to compare the mobility of selected joints of the limbs in diabetic and non-diabetics subjects. One hundred subjects comprising of 50 volunteer diabetics and 50 volunteer non-diabetics subjects participated in this study. The range of motion of the shoulder, elbow, wrist, fingers, hip and knee joins were measured using a double armed simple goniometer and recorded in degrees. The outcome of this study revealed that there was a significant difference between joint mobility in the diabetic and non-diabetic subjects for all the joints range measured except the knee and elbow joints. There was also a low and positive correlation between duration of diabetes and frequency of finger deformities. No significant difference was found between joint mobility of male and female diabetics subjects. It was concluded that reduced range of motion of some joints especially of the wrist and hand could set in as a complication diabetics conditions.