Factors that make women vulnerable to heart disease

Thursday November 8th, 2018

Women appear to be more vulnerable than men to developing cardiovascular disease from some key risk factors – including diabetes, according to a major analysis published today.

Type I and Type II diabetes both have an impact on women as do smoking and hypertension, according to the research in The BMJ.

A woman with type I diabetes faces a three times increased risk of suffering myocardial infarction compared with a man, researchers found.

Smoking increased relative risk by 55%, hypertension by 83% and type II diabetes by 47%.

One factor may be that women are less likely than men to receive full care for risk factors such as diabetes, the researchers from Oxford University say.

The findings come from an analysis of more than 470,000 people in the UK Biobank over a period of seven years. During this period, some 5,000 people experienced their first myocardial infarction – 29% of these were women.

Researchers Elizabeth Millett and Sanne Peters write: “The presence of hypertension, smoking, and diabetes were associated with an increased risk of myocardial infarction in both women and men, but with an excess relative risk among women.

“Women should, at least, receive the same access to guideline-based treatments for diabetes and hypertension, and to resources to help lose weight and stop smoking as do men.”

* The journal today also raises concerns about a “postcode lottery” of access for patients with type 1 diabetes to flash glucose monitoring devices.

Sex differences in major risk factors for myocardial infarction: cohort study among 472000 UK Biobank participants. The BMJ 8 November 2018

http://www.bmj.com/content/363/bmj.k4247

Tags: Diabetes | Heart Health | UK News | Women's Health & Gynaecology

Printer friendly page