Hand, shoulder and back stiffness in long-term type 1 diabetes; cross-sectional association with skin collagen advanced glycation end-products. The Dialong study

•Persons with T1DM >45 years had a very high lifetime prevalence of hand and shoulder diagnoses versus controls.•We found an association between joint stiffness and both skin collagen Advanced Glycation End-products and HbA1c.•Our results imply that the pathogenesis for stiffness formation differs from that leading to microvascular complications.