A comprehensive UK study uncovers distinct patterns in how men and women experience and develop complications from type 2 diabetes, highlighting the need for gender-tailored monitoring and care strategies.
A large UK study suggests that type 2 diabetes does not unfold in quite the same way for men and women, with men more likely to run into heart and kidney disease and women more likely to face mental health problems after diagnosis. The research, published in PLOS Medicine, tracked 28,720 adults newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes between 2010 and 2020 and followed them for a median of 6.8 years.
Using linked primary and secondary care records, the researchers mapped the order and timing of complications including high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, end-stage renal disease and mental health conditions. Hypertension was the most common problem in both sexes, affecting 21.1% of men and 20.2% of women, but the broader patterns diverged. Women were more often placed on a trajectory that included anxiety, depression or somatoform disorders, while men were more likely to progress towards cardiovascular disease or kidney failure. Medical News Today has previously noted that sex differences in type 2 diabetes may reflect factors such as body-fat distribution and metabolic health.
The findings add to a growing body of research showing that complications do not always appear evenly across sexes. A separate study indexed on PubMed found coronary artery disease and neuropathy were more common in men, while diabetic kidney disease and retinopathy were more common in women. Another prospective cohort study found women had a higher incidence of microvascular complications, reinforcing the case for closer monitoring tailored to sex.
The PLOS Medicine paper also found that people who developed mental health conditions after diabetes tended to die earlier, and that men in the high-risk mental health group died, on average, nine years younger than women. The authors said the results point to the value of routine mental health screening, particularly in younger women, and earlier surveillance for cardiovascular and kidney complications in men. But they stressed the study was observational, so it cannot prove diabetes causes these differences, and some of the gap in mental health diagnoses may reflect how often people seek care.
Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical judgment, advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
