Women with diabetes are less aware than the men of the gravity and risks of the disease, according to the 'Ladydiab' study, launched by the network of diabetes study groups (Redgdps Foundation), with theNovartis collaboration.
The study, which analyzes the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors in the management and control of this pathology in men and women has shown that emotional and care issues constitute the main gender differences, which causes women with diabetesThey are less aware than the men of the gravity and risks of their illness.
'Ladydiab' part of the premise that diabetes represents in women a relative risk for the development of cardiovascular disease superior to that of the male, to develop a study with three different and complementary parts: a survey on knowledge, beliefs and attitudes of the staffsanitary, fundamentally of primary care;a group of groups with diabetic men and women to analyze their differences regarding the way of facing, handling and living with the disease;and a transversal study on the management in real practice conditions of cardiovascular risk factors in men and women with diabetes.
"There are two large areas in which gender differences in the management and control of diabetes in primary care are very patent. On the one hand, it is clearly observed that in most risk factors associated with diabetes control isNotoriously worse in women than in men and, on the other, there is a less aggressive attitude when the doctor treats a diabetic woman regarding a diabetic man of the same characteristics, even after having suffered a cardiovascular event, "he stressedThe primary care doctor of Raval Sud of Barcelona and member of the Permanent Commission of Redgdps Foundation, Josep Franch Nadal.
All this, it continues, is due to a perception of "erroneous" risk, since there has traditionally been the concept that women have a lower cardiovascular risk.An affirmation that, as the expert has asserted, "is not true" in the case of diabetic women.
Another of the main problems that 'Ladydiab' has revealed is the "low" presence of diabetic women in the prevention or treatment studies of cardiovascular disease, usually 20 percent, because it prevents the critical assessment of the majority of the majority of the majority ofStudies and reduces the possibilities of other research approaches.
This could be due, in the opinion of experts, to the idea that cardiovascular disease is a matter of men, which is partly true until the average ages of life.However, study researchers have indicated that there are "enough evidence" of the greatest weight of diabetes as a cardiovascular risk factor in women.
And, the forecast is worse, probably influenced by the older age and comorbidity, but also due to anatomical, pathophysiological and pharmacological reasons.In addition, the greatest diagnostic difficulty could be another reason, since tests such as the effort electrocardiogram are much less valuable in women than in male1, as the study collects.
Therefore, and with the aim of improving the management and control of patients with diabetes from primary care, Franch has underlined the need to achieve a "good attitude" of health professionals in charge of caring for people with diabetes so that they are aware of theProblem, to which we must add the appropriate knowledge and means to try to minimize the impact of diabetic disease.
'Ladydiab' researchers will conclude the project with aDescriptive and transverse study on the management in real practice conditions of cardiovascular risk factors in men and women with diabetes, as well as the epidemiology of the complications they may present and the possible factors that explain differences, with special attention to adherence to the adherence to thetreatment.
