A recent study revealed that men with diabetes (type 1 and 2) are far more likely to suffer from co-morbidities like cardiovascular disease (CVD), kidney complications, and foot or leg complications than women with diabetes.
“Although the prevalence of diabetes is similar in men and women (worldwide prevalence of 8.9% and 8.4%, respectively), the incidence and progression of diabetes-related complications appear to be more sex-specific,” the authors wrote in their study that was published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.
“Our study demonstrates that men with diabetes had a 1.5-fold increased risk of CVD, lower limb, and kidney complications, and risk of diabetic retinopathy was 14% greater in men than in women. The greater risk of CVD complications observed for men in our study is consistent with other large population-based studies in France and Denmark,” the authors further explained. “Men are more likely to be overweight, have a history of heart disease or stroke, and be previous smokers. Men may also be less likely to adopt primary prevention strategies, such as healthy lifestyle change and medication use, and to engage in health-seeking behaviors, such as preventative health checks.”
“Further, women are known to be at lower risk of CVD complications compared with men due to the protective effects of reproductive factors such as breastfeeding and the use of hormone replacement therapy within 10 years of menopause,” they added.
The cardiovascular diseases that men with diabetes are at a higher risk of are ischaemic heart disease, transient ischaemic attack (TIA), stroke, heart failure, and diabetic cardiomyopathy.
Surprisingly, the study highlighted that women with diabetes were at a greater risk of eye complications due to incident retinopathy than their male counterparts. The researchers hypothesized that it might be because cataracts are more prevalent in women than men.
Lead author Alice Gibson from the University of Sydney and colleagues analyzed the data of 25,713 people with diabetes from The Sax Institute’s 45 and Up Study which provided detailed information on each person’s socio-economic status, and health and lifestyle-related details.
Out of the 25,713 study participants, 57% were men above 45 years. Among the male participants, 38.7% were overweight compared to 27.8% of women who were included in the study’s data sample.
Smoking was also far more prevalent among men (51% compared with only 29% of women). “For every 1000 people with diabetes, our findings suggest that an average of 37, 52, 21, and 32 people will develop CVD, eye, lower limb, and kidney complications every year,” the authors noted.
“Although men with diabetes are at greater risk of developing complications, in particular cardiovascular disease, kidney, and lower-limb complications, the rates of complications are high in both sexes. The similar sex difference for those with shorter compared with longer diabetes duration highlights the need for targeted complication screening and prevention strategies from the time of diabetes diagnosis. Further investigation into the underlying mechanisms for the observed sex differences in diabetes complications is needed to inform targeted interventions,” they concluded.
