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Item #5
Women
With Diabetes Have Special Needs Which Need to Be Addressed
The
medical and psychological needs of women with diabetes should be
examined in greater depth, as they experience the disease
differently from men.
New
findings from a series of one-on-one interviews with women with
diabetes from around the globe show that the role of the woman as
family carer is negatively affected if they have diabetes or look
after someone with the condition.
The
International Women's Diabetes Survey findings, released on World
Diabetes Day, give an emotional insight to the growing
investigation into women with diabetes. The study, conducted
across 12 countries by Taylor Nelson Sofres Healthcare, looks at
the attitudes and feelings of women with diabetes and how living
with diabetes affects and changes their lives.
Type
2 diabetes is becoming more common in women, particularly between
the ages of 60 and 74 (13.3% of women in that age group have type
2 diabetes, compared to 11.8% of men in the same age group1). More
importantly, diabetes can run a more severe course in women than
in men e.g. women with diabetes are twice as likely to develop
heart disease as men with diabetes.2
The
main problems the interviews identified are the restrictive
dietary modifications they need to make in order to control their
diabetes, constant fatigue and fear of complications such as
blindness. Another concern highlighted by female carers, who were
also surveyed, is the mood swings they have to deal with when
looking after someone with diabetes.
In
terms of the fear of complications caused by diabetes, over 50% of
the women with diabetes surveyed were most concerned about
complications such as diabetes related blindness, something that
affects women more than men3. Diabetic retinopathy is the most
common form of blindness in the Western world before 65 years of
age4, one of the reasons why the International Diabetes Federation
(IDF) has chosen diabetic eye disease as this year's theme for
World Diabetes Day.
Professor
Sir George Alberti, President of the IDF, said, "Women have a
different experience with diabetes to men. In addition, in many
cultures the role of the woman is pivotal in the family unit so if
a woman develops long-term complications such as deterioration of
eyesight, this can have a huge impact on her family life."
Dr
Alberti added, "Nowadays, the introduction of new, more
effective treatments and more convenient delivery systems combined
with structured screening programs, offer more promise for these
women in helping them lead a more normal life."
*
* * * * * The survey findings support existing data from
large-scale studies such as RoperASW's Global Diabetes Patient
Studies 5 and DAWN6 in which more than 6000 women were interviewed
from around the world. Women from the RoperASW 2000 study claimed
to find their diabetes more difficult to control than men, were
more concerned about complications such as blindness and, as with
The International Women's Diabetes Survey, listed diabetes as
having mostly affected relationships with family and fri
The
telephone survey spanned 12 countries and included a sample of 120
women over 40, at least 50% of whom have type 2 diabetes, and 50%
of whom care for a person with type 2 diabetes. The survey was
conducted by Taylor Nelson Sofres, one of the largest independent
market research companies in the world. Data available on file
from Novo Nordisk
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