Gender difference in the impact of coexisting diabetes mellitus on long‐term clinical outcome in people with heart failure: a report from the Korean Heart Failure Registry

AIM: Few data are available on the gender-related differences in the prognostic impact of diabetes in people with heart failure. This study was performed to investigate whether there is a gender difference in the association between diabetes and long-term clinical outcomes in people hospitalized for heart failure. METHODS: A total of 3162 people hospitalized with heart failure (aged 67.4 ± 14.1 years, 50.4% females) from the data set of the nationwide registry were analysed. The primary endpoint was a composite of all-cause mortality and heart failure readmission. RESULTS: People with diabetes (30.5% for males vs. 31.1% for females, P = 0.740) were older and had more unfavourable risk factors and laboratory findings than those without diabetes in both genders. During a median follow-up period of 549 days, there were 1418 cases of composite events (44.8%). In univariable analysis, the coexistence of diabetes was significantly associated with a higher incidence of composite events in both genders (P   0.05). CONCLUSIONS: In people with heart failure, the impact of diabetes on long-term mortality and heart failure readmission seems to be stronger in females than in males. More careful and intensive management is needed especially in females with heart failure and diabetes.