The impact of diabetes on coronary heart disease differs from that on ischaemic stroke with regard to the gender

BACKGROUND To study the diabetes related CVD risk between men and women of different ages. METHODS Hazards ratios (HRs) (95%CI) for acute CHD and ischaemic stroke events were estimated based on data of Finnish and Swedish cohorts of 5111 women and 4167 men. RESULTS 182 (3.6%) women and 348 (8.4%) men had CHD and 129 (2.5%) women and 137 (3.3%) men ischaemic stroke events. The multivariate adjusted HRs for acute CHD at age groups of 40-49, 50-59 and 60-69 years were 1.00 (1.94), 1.78 (4.23), 3.75 (8.40) in women (men) without diabetes and 4.35 (5.40), 5.49 (9.54) and 8.84 (13.76) in women (men) with diabetes. The corresponding HRs for ischaemic stroke were 1.00 (1.26), 2.48 (2.83) and 5.17 (5.11) in women (men) without diabetes and 4.14 (4.91), 3.32 (6.75) and 13.91 (18.06) in women (men) with diabetes, respectively. CONCLUSION CHD risk was higher in men than in women but difference reduced in diabetic population. Diabetes, however, increased stroke risk more in men than in women.