Do diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and its sequelae in men and women?
Diabetes is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, with a disproportionately greater impact on cardiovascular mortality and heart failure risk in women compared to men.
This report examines prospectively, in the Framingham cohort, the relation of diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance to each of the cardiovascular sequelae, taking into account age, sex, and associated cardiovascular risk factors. The incidence of cardiovascular disease, as well as the levels of cardiovascular risk factors, were found to be higher in diabetic than in nondiabetic men and women. The relative impact of diabetes on coronary heart disease, peripheral vascular disease, or stroke incidence was the same in men and women, but for cardiovascular mortality and cardiac failure the impact is greater for women. Present evidence suggests that alleviation of associated cardiovascular risk factors is the most promising course in reducing cardiovascular sequelae in diabetic patients.
Kannel et al. (1979) studied this question.