Diabetes and heart disease risk worse for women

According to new research by the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the effect of diabetes on severe illnesses and risk of death amongst heart failure patients is considerably worse for women . Those patients who are older are even more at risk.
The conclusions of the study were published in Heart last week. The team found that being diabetic was associated with major increase in the risk of death for patients with heart failure, with women particularly at risk.
The team was led by an associate professor, Ali Ahmed, who reportedly commented: “Our results suggest that heart failure patients should be thoroughly evaluated for the presence of diabetes and if it is present, should be intensively managed based on published guidelines. Further studies should test current interventions and develop new ones to reduce the adverse effects of diabetes in heart failure patients in general, and among older adults in particular.”
To glean their data, the team studied over 2000 diabetics with hearh failure and 2000 non-diabetics who had heart failure.