Gender differences in glycosylated hemoglobin levels in seasonal affective disorder patients and controls

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) has been shown to manifest different symptoms in female and male patients. Specifically, women with SAD have been shown to have greater increases in overeating, weight gain, and increased sleep as compared with their male counterparts. Given these dietary changes, we predicted that female SAD patients would exhibit increased glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA₁) levels, indicative of chronically elevated glucose levels. Twenty-two patients (15 women and seven men) and matched controls were enrolled during the winter season and tested for HbA₁ levels. A three-way analysis of variance (ANOVA; gender x group x season) was insignificant and the result was a negative study. After the initial hypothesis was rejected, we undertook a posthoc analysis of the data, from which emerged that in winter, women patients had higher HbA₁ levels as compared with matched controls. As our original hypothesis was rejected, we cannot accept the results of the post-hoc study. However, numerous other studies have demonstrated that female and male SAD patients differ in their pathophysiology, and are suggestive that in future analyses ought to consider analyzing subjects separately across gender.