Excess heart attack risk with diabetes is higher in women than men
Women aged 18 to 34 with type 2 diabetes had a hazard ratio of 9.08 for heart attacks compared to controls, against 5.14 in men.
Limit: The study excluded individuals with prior cardiovascular disease
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
In a register-based cohort study, researchers tracked 561,896 people in Sweden diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, 44.6% of whom were women, alongside 2,287,180 matched controls without diabetes. All participants had no prior cardiovascular disease, and follow-up ran through 2019.
Among people with diabetes, heart attacks occurred in 23,756 men and 14,862 women. Excess risks for all cardiovascular outcomes were higher in younger patients than in older patients, with the largest sex difference seen in heart attacks. For women aged 18 to 34, the adjusted hazard ratio for a heart attack compared to controls was 9.08, compared to 5.14 for men of the same age. Differences between sexes were less pronounced for ischemic stroke, a loss of blood flow to the brain, heart failure, and death from any cause. These gaps narrowed with increasing age and became minimal among the oldest individuals.
Why it matters
Cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes become more common with age, but how chronic metabolic illness alters cardiovascular vulnerability over the human lifespan remains an open question. Tracking how excess risk changes across life stages helps clarify how biological sex and aging interact to shape long-term cardiovascular health.
Caveats
The observational design cannot establish whether diabetes caused the difference in excess risk between sexes. In addition, the results come from a conference abstract and exclude individuals with prior cardiovascular disease.
The paper
Sahlgrenska Academy - University of Gothenburg
ESC Congress 2026 Abstract, Oct 26, 2026
Presented at ESC Congress 2026
