Diabetes
Care for Women Needs Improvement
Medical advances against diabetes of the last few decades
have not benefited women, says a study reported in the Annals
of Internal Medicine.
The findings challenge the conventional wisdom that women
live longer than men.
Researchers found that the death rates of men with diabetes
dropped in recent decades, while those of women with diabetes increased. It
is not clear why the discrepancy exists.
Dr. Larry Deeb, spokesperson for the American
Diabetes Association (ADA), says he really does not know why the study
shows women have fallen behind.
"But I do know that it argues that something we're doing
isn't right,” says Dr. Deeb. “If you're a woman, and you have diabetes,
it may be we're not aggressive enough about taking care of you."
In the new study, researchers led by Edward Gregg, Ph.D.,
an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC), examined health surveys spanning 1971 to 2000
to determine the death rates of Americans with diabetes.
The researchers looked at about 27,000 persons. They found
that among men with diabetes, the death rate from all causes dipped from 43
to 24 deaths per 1,000 persons between the two time periods.
Among men, "their mortality rates have declined," Dr. Gregg
says, "and they've kept pace with their non-diabetic counterparts."
But among women with diabetes, the death rate actually rose
from 18 to 26 per 1,000, even as the life span of women without diabetes grew
longer.
Death rates from cardiovascular disease, in particular,
stayed steady among women with diabetes while dropping among men with diabetes.
Why are women with diabetes at such high risk?
"We can speculate on a few possibilities, that risk factors
for things such as heart disease haven't declined as much among women as in
men," notes Dr. Gregg.
"Another possibility is that women haven't gotten as aggressive
or comprehensive treatment as men have over the years," he says.
Dr. Deeb says the research appears to be sound.
An estimated 9.7 million American women have diabetes, and
almost one-third of them do not know it. Women with diabetes are more likely
to have a heart attack, and at a younger age, than women without diabetes,
according to the ADA.
Diabetes is at least two to four times more common among
African-American, Hispanic, American Indian, and Asian/Pacific Islander women
than Caucasian women.
The risk for the disease increases with age. Given the increasing
life span of women and the rapid growth of minority populations, the number
of women in the US at risk for diabetes is increasing, the ADA states.
Meanwhile, a second new study says that women are now about
as likely as men to get recommended screening tests and treatments to manage
their diabetes.
According to the latest statistics from the Agency
for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), for Americans age 40 and
over with diabetes:
- The percentage of women who report being given three key recommended exams
for diabetes - blood sugar, eye, and foot - increased from 37 percent in
2000 to 47 percent in 2003.
- During the same period, the percentage of men who reported receiving these
exams rose only 3 percent from 46 percent to 49 percent.
- The proportion of women whose blood sugar level was optimal increased from
38 percent for the period 1988 to 1994 to 47 percent for 1999 to 2002.
- In contrast, the proportion of men with optimal blood sugar level fell
from 44 percent to 43 percent during the period.
In spite of the narrowing disparities between the genders,
fewer than 60 percent of Americans, as a whole, receive optimal care for their
diabetes.
Always consult your physician for more information.
(Our Organization is not responsible for the content of
Internet sites.)
Agency
for Healthcare Research and Quality
American
Association of Clinical Endocrinologists
American
Diabetes Association
Annals
of Internal Medicine - Mortality Trends in Men and Women with Diabetes, 1971
to 2000
CDC
- Diabetes Public Health Resource
National
Diabetes Education Program
National
Diabetes Information Clearinghouse
National
Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) |
