A follow-up study to assess the effects of personally tailored diabetes care in general practice has revealed that such care reduces mortality in women, but not men, according to a report published on The Lancet. The study was conducted by Dr Marlene Krag, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and colleagues.

After 6 years of tailored treatment there no effect was seen on mortality and other pre-defined non-fatal outcomes.

The data upto 2008 showed that women given structured personal care were 26% less likely to die of any cause and 30% less likely to die of a diabetes-related cause than women given routine care. Women given the personal care intervention were also 41% less likely to suffer a stroke, and 35% less likely to experience any diabetes-related endpoint. None of these differences were seen between the personal care and routine care points in men, but the differences between genders were only statistically significant for all-cause mortality and diabetes-related death.

The authors say: "Structured personal diabetes care could provide women with significant attention and thus provide an incentive to treatment adherence."