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Women With Diabetes Have Special Needs Which Need to Be Addressed
posted 12/02/02
The medical and psychological needs of women with diabetes should
be examined in greater depth, as they experience the disease differently from
men.
New findings from a series of one-on-one
interviews with women with diabetes from around the globe show that the role of
the woman as family carer is negatively affected if they have diabetes or look
after someone with the condition.
The International Women's Diabetes Survey
findings, released on World Diabetes Day, give an emotional insight to the
growing investigation into women with diabetes. The study, conducted across 12
countries by Taylor Nelson Sofres Healthcare, looks at the attitudes and
feelings of women with diabetes and how living with diabetes affects and changes
their lives.
Type 2 diabetes is becoming more common in women,
particularly between the ages of 60 and 74 (13.3% of women in that age group
have type 2 diabetes, compared to 11.8% of men in the same age group1). More
importantly, diabetes can run a more severe course in women than in men e.g.
women with diabetes are twice as likely to develop heart disease as men with
diabetes.2
The main problems the interviews identified are
the restrictive dietary modifications they need to make in order to control
their diabetes, constant fatigue and fear of complications such as blindness.
Another concern highlighted by female carers, who were also surveyed, is the
mood swings they have to deal with when looking after someone with diabetes.
In terms of the fear of complications caused by
diabetes, over 50% of the women with diabetes surveyed were most concerned about
complications such as diabetes related blindness, something that affects women
more than men3. Diabetic retinopathy is the most common form of blindness in the
Western world before 65 years of age4, one of the reasons why the International
Diabetes Federation (IDF) has chosen diabetic eye disease as this year's theme
for World Diabetes Day.
Professor Sir George Alberti, President of the
IDF, said, "Women have a different experience with diabetes to men. In addition,
in many cultures the role of the woman is pivotal in the family unit so if a
woman develops long-term complications such as deterioration of eyesight, this
can have a huge impact on her family life."
Dr Alberti added, "Nowadays, the introduction of
new, more effective treatments and more convenient delivery systems combined
with structured screening programs, offer more promise for these women in
helping them lead a more normal life."
The survey findings support existing data from
large-scale studies such as RoperASW's Global Diabetes Patient Studies 5 and
DAWN6 in which more than 6000 women were interviewed from around the world.
Women from the RoperASW 2000 study claimed to find their diabetes more difficult
to control than men, were more concerned about complications such as blindness
and, as with The International Women's Diabetes Survey, listed diabetes as
having mostly affected relationships with family and fri
The telephone survey spanned 12 countries and included a sample of 120 women over 40, at least 50% of whom have type 2 diabetes, and 50% of whom care for a person with type 2 diabetes. The survey was conducted by Taylor Nelson Sofres, one of the largest independent market research companies in the world. Data available on file from Novo Nordisk.
Source: Diabetes In Control Dot Com.
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