In a new study, researchers examined whether men and women experienced different health patterns following a type 2 diabetes diagnosis and how those patterns varied by age.
Receiving a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes may involve more than requiring close management of blood sugar levels.
People with the disease often face an increased risk of comorbidities , such as heart disease, kidney disease, or anxiety.
The researchers also tracked the order and timing of comorbid conditions the participants developed after their type 2 diabetes diagnosis.
Men were more likely to develop cardiovascular or end-stage renal disease, with 8.4% receiving either diagnosis compared with 5.3% of women.
The study authors believe the findings could help healthcare providers provide more individualized care.
However, these conditions may not develop in the same way for everyone. In a new study, researchers examined whether men and women experienced different health patterns following a type 2 diabetes diagnosis and how those patterns varied by age.
Receiving a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes may involve more than requiring close management of blood sugar levels. People with the disease often face an increased risk of comorbidities , such as heart disease, kidney disease, or anxiety.
The researchers also tracked the order and timing of comorbid conditions the participants developed after their type 2 diabetes diagnosis.
The team followed participants for a median of 6.8 years. They grouped participants according to whether they developed diabetes at ages 16 to 39, 40 to 59, or 60 and older.
The researchers excluded anyone who had already received a diagnosis for one of the study’s specified outcomes before developing type 2 diabetes:
Their analysis included 28,720 people who received a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes between 2010 and 2020. Men made up 62% of the cohort and had a median age of 54 at diabetes onset, while women had a median age of 56.
For the new study, the researchers used health information from the United Kingdom Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) .
People can manage type 2 diabetes by making lifestyle changes and taking medications, such as metformin . If it is left unmanaged, diabetes can contribute to serious health issues, such as heart or kidney disease.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that around 40.1 million people in the United States have diabetes, and type 2 diabetes accounts for the vast majority of adult cases.
For the analysis, the team grouped anxiety, depression, and somatoform disorders into one mental health category. They combined cardiovascular conditions and end-stage renal disease into another category and kept hypertension as a separate category.
During follow-up, 39% of participants had at least one of the events included in the analysis.
The most common comorbid condition the participants developed was hypertension, regardless of age and sex group. It affected 20.2% of women and 21.1% of men.
The other categories painted a different picture, however.
About 8.1% of women developed a mental health condition after diabetes, compared with 5.3% of men. Women ages 16 to 39 had the highest probability of developing anxiety, depression, or a somatoform disorder.
Men were more likely to develop cardiovascular or end-stage renal disease, with 8.4% receiving either diagnosis compared with 5.3% of women.
Study author Fabiola Eto, PhD, a postdoctoral research associate at Queen Mary University of London, spoke with Medical News Today about the study findings, and explained that the records showed when clinicians first documented a condition, not necessarily when it began.
Eto pointed out that women averaged 92 primary care consultations compared with 32 among men, so the findings could be possibly explained by women having more opportunities for these conditions to be identified.
“Some conditions may simply be recorded sooner in women rather than occurring at genuinely different rates,” she explained.
The researchers also linked mental health trajectories with the earliest mortality.
