Repeated measures ANOVA tests were used to analyze differences between the first and subsequent assessments for continuous data. The sensory data were analyzed by non-parametric tests. Correlation between light touch scores and age, diabetes duration, BMI and HbA1c were analyzed using Spearman coefficients. The Wilcoxon matchedpairs signed-ranks test was used to test for significant differences between the first and subsequent assessments, between the study sample and age-adjusted normative data and between the hand diagnosis subgroups. Statistical analyses were performed with Intercooled Stata 10.1 for Windows (StataCorp, College Station, TX, USA). Pb0.05 was considered statistically significant.