Diabetic Women Under 60 Have Greater Heart Disease Risk, Study Says

The results of a new Johns Hopkins University study suggest women younger than 60 years old who have type 2 diabetes are at much greater risk of heart disease than previously believed.

Writing in the journal Diabetes Care, the researchers report that generally women under 60 have less of a risk of developing coronary heart disease than men. But if those women have type 2 diabetes, the heart disease risk increases by up to four time, putting their risk roughly equal to a man's.

The study sample included the data of 10,000 people, collected through three highly regarded medical surveys. None of the participants had a history of heart disease.

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

Each of the three heath surveys yielded similar gender differences in rates of diabetes and the risk of developing heart disease.

"Our study adds to growing evidence that gender differences exist in the risk of coronary artery disease brought on by diabetes," Kalyani added.

Although men are generally at higher risk of heart disease, whether or not they have diabetes does little to affect their probability of developing heart disease.

Also of note was that the heart disease results showed no relationship to obesity and other traditional cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure, cholesterol and smoking.

The researchers report there could be several possible explanations for the increased heard disease risk in middle aged women.

"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" Kalyani said in a statement. "Also, the relationship of diabetes duration and glucose control to risk of heart disease remains unclear."