Is There a Difference in Cardiovascular Disease Risk Between Newly Diagnosed Male and Female Korean Diabetes Subjects?: Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

In the general population, males show increased cardiovascular disease prevalence compared to females of similar age. However, evidence suggests women with diabetes might show similar or even increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) compared to diabetic males of similar age. The aim of this study was to demonstrate if future CVD risk gender differences exist at the time of diabetes diagnosis, and to examine which CVD risk factors contribute to increased CVD risk in Korean women with diabetes compared to men with incident diabetes. CVD gender risk factor differences were investigated in subjects from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Surveys (KNHANES), 2007-2010, CVD risks were estimated using the Framingham risk prediction model, and the relative attribution power of CVD risk factors were analyzed by gender and risk groups. 402 subjects (1.8%) were drawn from 33,829 population-based subjects newly diagnosed with diabetes. There were no significant gender differences for 10-year coronary heart disease (CHD) and CVD risk at the time of diabetes diagnosis. Hypercholesterolemia, high LDL-cholesterol, low HDL-cholesterol and abdominal obesity prevalence were higher in newly diagnosed diabetic women than men in the CHD risk groups. The odds ratio for increased CHD risk for abdominal obesity was 4.656, higher LDL-cholesterol was 2.837, lower HDL-cholesterol was 2.958 and hypercholesterolemia was 1.940 in newly diagnosed diabetic women compared to men. In conclusion, abdominal obesity and dyslipidemia control can be the most important treatment strategy to reduce future CVD risk in newly diagnosed Korean diabetic women