Diabetic men 'too macho to diet' and live longer

Men are more likely to die from masculinity-challenging diabetes, according to a new study.

A University of Copenhagen follow-up study to assess the effects of personally tailored diabetes care in general practice has revealed that such care reduces mortality (both all-cause and diabetes-related), in women, but not men.

Discussing the different results for women versus men, the authors said that structured personal diabetes care could provide women with significant attention and support and thus provide an incentive to treatment adherence.

They added that women accept disease and implement disease management more easily, which might affect long-term outcomes. Masculinity may be challenged by diabetes, demanding daily consideration and lifestyle changes. The structured approach could conflict with men's tendency to trust self-directed learning instead of self-management.

The authors concluded that they propose that the improved outcomes in women may be explained by complex social and cultural issues of gender. There is a need to further explore the gender-specific effects of major intervention trials in order to rethink the way we provide medical care to both men and women, so that both sexes benefit from intensified treatment efforts.

The study is published in Diabetologia.