Gender-specific trends of educational inequality in diagnosed diabetes from 1999 to 2014 in Hong Kong: a serial cross-sectional study of 97,481 community-dwelling Chinese adults

BACKGROUND: Gender differences in the trend of educational inequality in diabetes have been widely observed in the Western populations, indicating the increasing importance of educational attainment as a social determinant of diabetes among women. Nonetheless, relevant evidence is scarce in developed Asian settings for comparisons. This study examined the gender-specific trends of educational inequality in diagnosed diabetes in Hong Kong between 1999 and 2014. METHODS: A series of eight territory-wide population-representative samples of 97,481 community-dwelling Hong Kong Chinese adults aged 45 or above were surveyed between 1999 and 2014. Regression-based Relative Index of Inequality (RII) and age-standardized Slope Index of Inequality (SII) were adopted to examine the extent and trend of gender-specific educational inequality in self-reported physician-diagnosed diabetes. RESULTS: Age-standardized prevalence of diabetes increased in both genders over time, with a steeper surge among men. In addition, educational inequalities in diabetes, in both relative and absolute terms, significantly widened among women over the study period (annual RII change = 1.04; 95% CI = 1.02–1.07, annual SII change = 0.36%; 95% CI = 0.16–0.56%), with the peak in 2011 (RII = 2.44; 95% CI = 1.83–3.24, SII = 9.21%; 95% CI = 6.47–11.96%). However, no significant widening inequality was found among men. Further adjustment for household income level did not attenuate the observed educational inequality. CONCLUSIONS: Despite a greater increase in diabetes prevalence among men, disparity in diabetes substantially widened across education levels among women in the past decade in Hong Kong. The gender perspective should be taken into considerations for policy making to alleviate the prevalence surge and rising educational inequality in diabetes. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12963-021-00268-x.