Differences Between Women and Men with Intermittent Claudication: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Women claudicants have higher risk factors and more frequent cardiovascular comorbidity than men do. Women have a lower capacity for exercise and a poorer quality of life than male claudicants, despite having a similar ABI. These poorer outcomes in women can be partially explained by the presence of greater osteoarticular comorbidity.

Gender differences following supervised exercise therapy in patients with intermittent claudication

“…18 Interestingly, previous research suggested lower baseline WIQ scores in women. 27 These baseline gender differences were not observed in the present study. The magnitude of change in women's total WIQ score after 12 months of SET also did not differ from that of men.…”

“…A higher prevalence of comorbidities and advanced female age in previous research could explain these opposing results as these factors have influence on WIQ scores. 27 On the other hand, we observed lower walking ability scores in various subdomains for women, most strikingly with regard to walking speed. Previous studies also reported that women with IC ambulate slower in a community setting.…”

Gender Differences in Outcomes Following a Pain-Free, Home-Based Exercise Program for Claudication

“…To the best of our knowledge, the available literature on the response of women to rehabilitation in PAD is poor, and the present results represent a novel report. The only confirmation of previous data 10,37 is the low walking performance of women compared to that of men in absolute terms. The functional capacity at entrance to the program measured with both treadmill and ground-walking tests was lower in the female population with the same hemodynamic condition.…”

“…This aspect may refer to the lower aerobic efficiency typical of the female sex or the lower biomechanical efficiency aggravated by deconditioning, possibly related to the presence of comorbidities. 37,38 In daily activities, women move at a slower rate than men and present a different ambulatory pattern. 39 However, after rehabilitation, the same degree of functional improvement, which was the main focus of our study, was observed in the two subpopulations, with an average variation in exercise capacity between 20% and 110% for patients of both sexes.…”

“…Various reasons were hypothesized to explain these results, such as the presence of comorbidities 22,37 or the type of intervention. According to the authors, programs for the rehabilitation of cardiovascular patients should not be based on exercise alone 19,22 ; these programs may also benefit from the presence of staff members providing support.…”