Women with Type 2 Diabetes Have Greater Risk For Heart Disease

Type-2 diabetes independently elevates the risk of heart disease in young and middle aged women, according to a latest study.

Generally young and middle aged women are at less risk for coronary artery disease when compared to men of the same age.  But the latest study conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine found that women below the age of 60 with type 2 diabetes are at a greater risk of coronary artery disease than previously thought.  Diabetes increases the risk for heart disease by four times that is equal to the men's risk of the same type of heart disease.

"Our findings suggest that we need to work harder to prevent heart disease in women under 60 who have diabetes," Rita Rastogi Kalyani, M.D., M.H.S., endocrinologist at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and lead study author said in a statement. "This study tells us that women of any age who have diabetes are at a high risk for coronary artery disease."

According to Women's health in United States alone nearly 9.7 million women have diabetes and most of them are diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Of the 1.3 million women aged 18 to 44 years with diabetes, one-half million don't know they have it.

Though men generally have greater incidence of heart diseases when compared to women, the study noticed that diabetes had little or no effect on the heart disease risk of men.  This is the first study to look on the gender differences in coronary artery disease in diabetic women below 60 years of age.

The study was based on the analysis of the data gathered from more than 10,000 participants in three studies namely the GeneSTAR Research Program, the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III. None of the study participants had a history of heart diseases. The three studies shows some gender differenced in the rate of diabetes and the risk of heart disease.

This new finding is an addition to existing evidence that claim gender difference does exist in the risk of coronary artery diseases associated with diabetes.

The researchers propose an explanation for the elevated risk stating, "There may be distinct genetic and hormonal factors related to the development of heart disease by gender. Differences in adherence to heart-healthy lifestyle behaviors, compliance and treatment of cardiovascular treatments between genders are also possible but need to be further investigated." However, the relationship between diabetes duration along with glucose control and risk of heart disease remains unclear.

A similar study presented at the American Heart Association High Blood Pressure Research Scientific Sessions 2013 had said that type 2 diabetes increases the risk of heart disease in premenopausal women.

A study published in the November issue of Diabetes care links early puberty with increased risk of Type 2 diabetes. 

This new finding was published in the journal Diabetes Care.