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Over-weight, Middle-aged Women Have Higher Carpal Tunnel Risk

Female gender, obesity and age are all independent risks factors for carpal tunnel syndrome. Diabetes mellitus is a fourth, though weak, link to the condition.

These are the findings of a multi-centre case-control study in Brazil by Dr Jefferson Becker and colleagues from Hospital Luterano, Universidade Luterana do Brasil, as well as two other university hospitals and two private services, all in Porto Alegre.

The objective was to identify gender, high body mass index (BMI), age and diabetes mellitus (DM) as independent risk factors for carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and also to analyse the strength of the association of these factors globally and in individual subgroups.

Subjects were 791 patients with CTS, all selected from among those referred to nerve conduction studies and electromyography at one of the five participating institutions, and 981 controls.

To analyse the risk factors, the researchers calculated the odds ratio between the two groups and examined possible sources of bias using stratified and multivariate analyses.

Mean BMI and age were both greater among patients than among controls.

Being female, having a BMI of more than 30, being aged 41 years to 60 years and having DM were significantly more frequent among patients than controls. Men tended to have a more severe CTS than did women, and DM was a significant risk factor for bilateral lesions.

Stratified analysis indicated female gender, obesity and age of 41 years to 60 years are independent risk factors for the syndrome.

When stratified by BMI category, there was no significant association between DM and CTS.
Clinical Neurophysiology, Vol. 113 (9) (2002) pp. 1429-1434 "An evaluation of gender, obesity, age and diabetes mellitus as risk factors for carpal tunnel syndrome"

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