AHA: CV Risk Higher in Women with Diabetes Than in Men

Women with type 2 diabetes are twice as likely to develop coronary heart disease than men, according to a scientific statement from the American Heart Association. They may also require more intense exercise to lower their risk of cardiovascular events than men.

While previous research has shown that women without diabetes are less likely to experience cardiovascular events than men of the same age, this does not appear to be the case in patients with type 2 diabetes, researchers explained.
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“While we don’t fully understand how the inherent hormonal differences between men and women affect risk, we do know that some risk factors for heart disease and stroke affect women differently than men and there are disparities in how these risk factors are treated,” they wrote.

The current statement was designed to provide healthcare workers with current data on the sex differences in the cardiovascular consequences on type 2 diabetes.

The differences highlighted in the statement include:

  • Heart attacks occur earlier, and are more likely to lead to mortality, in women with diabetes than in men.
  • In the Framingham Heart Study, heart failure risk was 5 times higher in women with diabetes compared to women without diabetes, compared to just 2 times higher in men with diabetes compared to men without diabetes.
  • Women with diabetes are less likely to have controlled blood glucose and blood pressure.
  • Women were less likely to use cholesterol-lowering drugs and blood pressure-lowering drugs than men.
  • Women with diabetes are less likely to undergo angioplasty or coronary artery bypass grafting than men.

“To improve health equity in women and men with diabetes, we need to understand and improve both the biological reasons for the disparities and also control cardiovascular risk factors equally in both women and men,” researchers concluded. “This statement is a call for action to do the compelling research that is so important for all people with diabetes.”

—Michael Potts

Reference:

1. Regensteiner JG, Golden S, Huebschmann AG, et al. Sex differences in the cardiovascular consequences of diabetes mellitus. December 7, 2015 [epub ahead of print]. doi: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000000343

2. AHA. Sex differences in Type 2 diabetes affect cardiovascular disease risk [press release]. December 7, 2015. http://newsroom.heart.org/news/sex-differences-in-type-2-diabetes-affect-cardiovascular-disease-risk.