Minority racial and ethnic groups are the hardest hit by the disease. The prevalence of diabetes is at least 2-4 times higher among black, Hispanic, American Indian, and Asian Pacific Islander women than among white women. Type 2 diabetes usually develops after age 40 and occurs when the body's cells become resistant to insulin. Social, economic, and political barriers sometimes block high quality care and easy access to health care for women with diabetes. Social and economic issues will leave many older women with diabetes living alone and poor.
Poverty is also a major concern for women of childbearing age who have diabetes.
Women with diabetes have a lower life expectancy than women without diabetes. The risk of heart disease, the most common complication of diabetes, is more serious among women than men. Among people with diabetes who have had a heart attack, women have lower survival rates and a poorer quality of life then men. Women are at greater risk from blindness due to diabetes than men. All parts of society public and private are more effective when they work together long-term to address the public health issues of reducing the burden of diabetes among women.