<b>Objective</b>: Most, but not all studies suggested that
women with type 2
diabetes have higher relative risk (RR) for cardiovascular
disease (CVD) than men. More uncertainty exists on
whether the RR for CVD
is higher in prediabetic women compared to men.
<p><b>Research Design and Methods</b>: In a cross-sectional study, in 3540 normal glucose tolerant (NGT), prediabetic, and diabetic adults,
we compared the RR for prevalent non-fatal CVD between men and women. In a
longitudinal study including 1658 NGT, prediabetic, and diabetic adults,
we compared the RR for incident major adverse outcomes, including all-cause death, coronary heart
disease, and cerebrovascular disease events after 5.6 years follow-up. </p>
<p><b>Results:</b> Women with prediabetes and diabetes exhibited greater relative
differences in BMI, waist circumference, blood pressure, total, LDL and HDL
cholesterol, triglycerides, fasting glucose, hsCRP, and white blood cell count than men with prediabetes and diabetes when
compared with their NGT counterparts.
We found a higher RR
for prevalent
CVD in diabetic women
(RR 9.29;
95% CI 4.73-18.25; <i>P</i><0.0001) than in men (RR 4.56; 95%
CI 3.07-6.77; <i>P</i><0.0001), but no difference in RR for CVD was observed
comparing prediabetic women and men. In the longitudinal study, we found that
diabetic, but not prediabetic women have higher RR (RR 5.25; 95%
CI 3.22-8.56; <i>P</i><0.0001) of incident major adverse outcomes than their male
counterparts (RR 2.72; 95%
CI 1.81-4.08; <i>P</i><0.0001).</p>
<p><b>Conclusions:</b> This study suggests that diabetic, but not
prediabetic, women have higher RR for prevalent and incident major adverse outcomes than men. </p>
Cardiovascular disease in patients with type 2 diabetes
