Thepurpose of the study was to compare the mobility of selected joints of the limbs in diabetic and non­ diabetic subjects. One hundred volunteer subjects comprising 50 diabetic and 50 non-diabetic subjects participated in this study. The range of motion of the shoulder, elbow, wrist, fingers, hip and knee joints were measured. The occurrence offinger deformities was also studied. The range of motion was measured using a double-armed simple goniometer and recorded in deg rees. The outcome of this study revealed that there was a significant difference betweenjoint mobility in the diabetic and non-diabetic subjects for all the joints  (p < 0.05), except the knee and elbow joints (p > 0.05).   There   was   also   a   low   and  positive correlation between the duration of diabetes and the frequency of finger deformities. No significant difference was found  between joint mobility of male and female diabetic subjects (p > 0.05). It was concluded that the reduced  range of motion of some joints especially , the wrist and the hands, could occur as a complication from diabetes mellitus.

 

Key words: Diabetes, joint motion.