This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (15)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Diabetes Mellitus  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Recent Trends and Emerging Sex Disparities

Stephen D. Persell, MD, MPH; David W. Baker, MD, MPH

Arch Intern Med. 2004;164:2492-2499.

Background  Despite high cardiovascular risk among adults with diabetes mellitus, aspirin use has been low.

Methods  To assess recent self-reported regular aspirin use among adults 35 years or older with diabetes, we used statewide telephone surveys conducted in 7 states in 1997 and 20 states in 1999 and 2001 including 875, 3205, and 4272 subjects in 1997, 1999, and 2001, respectively.

Results  Aspirin use increased from 37.5% in 1997 to 48.7% in 2001. In 2001, 74.2% (95% confidence interval [CI], 70.9%-77.5%) of diabetic adults with cardiovascular disease, but only 37.9% (95% CI, 35.1%-40.7%) of those without cardiovascular disease, used aspirin regularly, including less than 40% with diagnosed hypertension or hypercholesterolemia or who smoked. After adjusting for cardiac risk factors and socioeconomic characteristics, among those without cardiovascular disease, aspirin use was less common in women aged 35 to 49 years (adjusted rate ratio [RR], 0.35; 95% CI, 0.24-0.51) and 50 to 64 years (RR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.53-0.88) and in men aged 35 to 49 years (RR, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.43-0.85) compared with men 65 years and older. For those with diagnosed cardiovascular disease, aspirin use was lower among women (RR, 0.81 compared with men; 95% CI, 0.70-0.90) and adults younger than 50 years (RR compared with those 65 years, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.61-0.98). The disparity in aspirin use between men and women appeared between 1997 and 2001.

Conclusions  Aspirin use among adults with diabetes has increased. However, many high-risk individuals, especially women and those younger than 50 years, do not use this effective and inexpensive therapy.

Author Affiliations: Division of General Internal Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Ill.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Sex-Specific Trends in Midlife Coronary Heart Disease Risk and Prevalence
Towfighi et al.
Arch Intern Med 2009;169:1762-1766.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Aspirin Use and Post-operative Bleeding from Dental Extractions
Brennan et al.
JDR 2008;87:740-744.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Gender Disparities in Blood Pressure Control and Cardiovascular Care in a National Sample of Ambulatory Care Visits
Keyhani et al.
Hypertension 2008;51:1149-1155.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Mortality Trends in Men and Women with Diabetes, 1971 to 2000
Gregg et al.
ANN INTERN MED 2007;147:149-155.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Excess risk of fatal coronary heart disease associated with diabetes in men and women: meta-analysis of 37 prospective cohort studies
Huxley et al.
BMJ 2006;332:73-78.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Health disparities: A barrier to high-quality care
Mullins et al.
Am J Health Syst Pharm 2005;62:1873-1882.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT