Sex-disparities in risk factors and atherosclerosis cardiovascular disease in diabetic patients

ABSTRACT

Objective: The current study was to evaluate risk factors and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) among diabetic patients by sex.

Methods: Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus were enrolled, and baseline characteristics and prevalent ASCVD (including coronary heart disease [CHD], ischemic stroke [IS], and peripheral vascular disease [PVD]) were collected and compared by sex.

Results: Females accounted for 48.5% (n = 284) of the current study. Compared to males, females had a longer duration of diabetes mellitus (9.1 ± 4.0 vs 8.0 ± 3.7 years), and were more likely to be obese (38% vs 34.4%), have hypertension (49.3% vs 45.7%) and have a lower estimated glomerular filtration rate (75.0 ± 20.6 vs 77.4 ± 19.2 ml/min/1.73 m²). Females were less likely to smoke (2.8% vs 31.1%), and receive anti-platelets (53.5% vs 56%), angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor/angiotensin receptor blocker (31.7% vs 35.1%), and metformin (81.7% vs 85.4%). Females had a higher prevalence of CHD (9.9% vs 8.6%) and composite ASCVD (21.8% vs 18.9%). After adjustment for potential covariates, female sex remained independently associated with composite ASCVD (odds ratio [OR]: 1.21 and 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.05–1.57) and CHD (OR: 1.13 and 95% CI: 1.01–1.38).

Conclusion: Among diabetic people, compared to males, females had a higher comorbid burden but received less optimal treatment, which might partly explain their higher prevalence of composite ASCVD and CHD.

KEYWORDS:

• Diabetes mellitus
• atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease
• sex
• relationship

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all the patients and the nurses who contributed to this work. We would also like to acknowledge Dr John Calhoun for thoroughly revising our paper.

Declaration of financial/other relationships

The contents of the paper and the opinions expressed within are those of the authors, and it was the decision of the authors to submit the manuscript for publication.

Declaration of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The current study was supported by the Technology Project of Huizhou City (190418094573263).