Key result
Hypertension, obesity, and diabetes show distinct sex differences in prevalence and adverse cardiovascular effects.
Why the study?
Cardiovascular disease management in women continues to be based primarily on findings in men with sex-specific guidelines mostly lacking, requiring better understanding of sex differences in hypertension, obesity, and diabetes.
Highlights the critical need for research into sex differences in hypertension, obesity, and diabetes to inform sex-specific cardiovascular prevention and treatment strategies.
Captured external expert commentary on this paper, strongest first. Original sources are linked where available.
“We need to understand how clinical care guidelines can be appropriately targeted to women as well as men in order to accurately prevent, assess and treat cardiovascular disease in both sexes. We are currently using the same guidelines for both men and women. However, we do not have the evidence we need to know if this is justified in all disease states.”
“Women develop diabetes with a different constellation of risk factors than men and it is crucial to understand these differences when making treatment decisions.”
May warrant sex-specific CVD risk assessment now; leaves open optimal guideline integration pending dedicated trials.
It has long been recognized that there are significant differences between the sexes affecting prevalence, incidence, and severity over a broad range of diseases. Until the early 1990s, the limited research conducted on women's health focused primarily on diseases affecting fertility and reproduction, and women were excluded from most clinical trials. For these reasons, the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of serious chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease in women continue to be based primarily on findings in men, and sex-specific clinical guidelines are mostly lacking. Hypertension, obesity, and diabetes, interrelated risk factors for cardiovascular disease, differ by sex in terms of prevalence and adverse effects as well as by genetics and biology. Research is needed to understand sex differences in hypertension, obesity, and diabetes to optimally inform sex-specific prevention, diagnosis, and treatment strategies for women and men. In this way, sex-specific clinical guidelines can be developed where warranted.
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Regensteiner et al. (2022) conducted a review in Cardiovascular disease, hypertension, obesity, and diabetes. Sex differences was evaluated. Hypertension, obesity, and diabetes differ by sex in prevalence and adverse cardiovascular effects, highlighting the need for sex-specific research and clinical guidelines.
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