Diabetes is more debilitating for men than women

Dennis Thompson, HealthDay reporter

Friday, May 17, 2024 (HealthDay News)

A new long-term study finds that men are more vulnerable to the debilitating effects of diabetes than women.

The overall prevalence of diabetes is roughly equal among men and women, according to the report released May 16. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

But men with diabetes, regardless of how long they've had the disease, had higher rates of heart disease, eye disease, kidney problems and foot complications, the researchers found.

“Men with diabetes are at higher risk of complications regardless of whether they have diabetes or not. “Duration,” concluded a team led by Alice Gibson of the University of Sydney in Australia.

For the study, researchers analysed data from a health survey of more than 267,000 people aged 45 and over living in New South Wales, Australia. These responses were linked to the medical records of around 26,000 people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes.

Overall, men with diabetes were 51% more likely to develop heart disease, 47% more likely to develop leg or foot complications, and 55% more likely to develop kidney disease.

Men also had a slightly higher risk (14%) of diabetic retinopathy, a sight-threatening eye disease.

Complication rates are high in both men and women.The researchers say that fewer people are living with diabetes, and in any case, men have always been at higher risk for diabetes than women.

According to the researchers, the men in the study may have been more likely to suffer from these complications because they tended to have other well-known risk factors associated with these health problems.

For example, more men than women were overweight (39% vs. 29%) and were former smokers (51% vs. 29%).

Men were also less likely to make lifestyle changes to lower their risk, take preventive medications, or get health checks, the researchers said.

The researchers noted that although the complication occurs more frequently in men, it remains common in women.

“Our findings suggest that for every 1,000 people with diabetes, an average of 37, 52, 21 and 32 people will develop cardiovascular, eye, lower limb and kidney complications each year,” the researchers said in a journal news release.

“Men with diabetes are at higher risk of developing complications, especially [cardiovascular disease]”Similarly large gender differences when comparing people with shorter versus longer diabetes duration highlight the need for targeted complication screening and prevention strategies starting from the time of diabetes diagnosis,” the researchers conclude.

For more information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more information about diabetes complications.

sauce: BMJNews release, May 16, 2024

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