Among diabetic patients with existing cardiovascular disease, Dr. Assiamira Ferrara of Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California and colleagues found, women were 5.4 percent less likely than men to have systolic blood pressures at recommended levels, and 5.9 percent less likely to have their "bad" LDL-cholesterol under control.
"Women with diabetes should be more concerned about their risk of developing cardiovascular disease," Ferrara told Reuters Health in an interview, adding that diabetic women should make sure that their doctor is doing the appropriate screening for blood pressure and cholesterol and keeping these two parameters under control.
o determine if gender differences in control of heart disease risk factors might help explain this disparity, the researchers looked at 8,821 men and women with diabetes belonging to 10 different managed care plans in the U.S. About one-third had a history of cardiovascular disease.
Among people with no heart or blood vessel disease, there was no difference in the percentage of men and women who had their blood sugar, blood pressure or LDL cholesterol under.
