Background: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic illness requiring long term medical attention so as to prevent the development of its devastating complications. Poorly controlled diabetes affects almost every organ of the body. Its effect on lung function has been poorly studied. So our study aims to detect the presence of obstructive airway disease in diabetic and non diabetic subjects by spirometry.

Objective: To study the association of Obstructive Airway Disease in diabetics and non diabetic subjects using spirometry.

Material and Method: This study was conducted on 80 subjects, out of which 40 were diabetic and 40 were non diabetic. Each subject underwent full scale clinical examination, all necessary investigations done specially spirometry with reversibility.

Results: out of 80 subjects studied maximum no of subjects (41.3%) observed were in the age group of 55-64 years, followed by age group 65-74 years (31.3%). Ratio of male and female subjects was M:F ≈ 3.21:1. Significant association was found between OAD and DM. 37.5% (15 subjects) of diabetics were found to have OAD, whereas only 15% (6 subjects) of non diabetics had OAD (p value 0.023).

Conclusion: Our study highlights the significant burden of OAD among diabetics. Patients with DM should routinely undergo inexpensive investigations like spirometry to detect the presence of OAD. Spirometry is a very sensitive tool to detect OAD.