Introduction & Objective: Growing evidence on the heterogeneity of type 1 diabetes (T1D) has been accumulated, there is still insufficient evidence to explore sex differences, particularly in adults with T1D. The study was to explore the sex differences among adult patients with autoimmune diabetes, focusing on the clinical characteristics, autoantibody profile, and β-cell secretion.
Methods: Clinical characteristics, islet autoantibody profile, and β cell function were assessed by sex in 191 adults with T1D between Jan 2015 to Nov 2022. Subgroup analysis was conducted in different age groups according to the age of diagnosis.
Results: Women had a higher median age at diagnosis than men (51.0 vs. 38.0 years, P=0.008) and were more likely to be positive for multi-autoantibodies (54.2% vs. 39.8%, age-adjusted odds ratio [OR] 2.21 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.20, 4.09], P=0.011), GADA (age-adjusted OR 5.62 [1.68, 18.86], P=0.005) and IA2A (age-adjusted OR 2.16 [1.18, 3.94], P=0.012). Moreover, women were at a higher risk of experiencing a decline in fasting C-peptide to 30% from baseline (age-adjusted OR 6.97 [1.88, 25.83], P=0.004). Subgroup analysis were shown in the following figure.
Conclusion: Analyzing the sex disparities of T1D provides new insight into the heterogeneity of this disease, and demands further investigation for understanding biological mechanisms, hence guiding personalized diagnosis and management for this disease.
S. Chen: None. Y. Gu: None.
the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82170837, 81770777, 82230028); Jiangsu Provincial Medical Key Discipline (Laboratory)+ZDXK202202.
