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Women Are Worse Off when it Comes to CVD Risk Factor Profiles

Posted: Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Women with diabetes, especially African American and Hispanic women, have worse cardiovascular risk factor profiles than men with diabetes do, according to a new report.

Previous surveys suggested that sex and racial/ethnic disparities are present in diabetes process of care measures and cardiovascular risk factor control, the authors explain.

Dr. Ginger J. Winston from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, and colleagues examined sex and sex-specific racial/ethnic differences in cardiovascular risk factor treatment and control in 926 participants with diabetes in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). The study enrolled men and women between the ages of 45 and 86, and data were taken at four exam periods between 2000 and 2007.

Compared with men in the study, women were 9% less likely to achieve LDL cholesterol less than 130 mg/dL and 9% less likely to achieve systolic blood pressure below 130 mmHg, the authors report.

African American women were 31% less likely and Hispanic women were 30% less likely than non-Hispanic white women to achieve blood pressure below 130/80 mmHg.

By the last evaluation, men and women did not differ in the percentages achieving LDL cholesterol and systolic blood pressure targets, the researchers note.

African American women remained 33% less likely to achieve blood pressure targets than non-Hispanic white women at the final evaluation.

During the last exam period, aspirin use was higher among men (57%) and non-Hispanic white women (58%) than among African American women (51%) and Hispanic women (39%), although there was no difference between men and women in antihypertensive or lipid-lowering medication.

"Our findings are consistent with previous reports showing sex and racial/ethnic differences in cardiovascular risk factor control among individuals with diabetes," the investigators conclude.

However, they add, the differences at baseline diminished over time.