Heart disease risk higher in women smokers than men

The study looked at over 40 years of data on smoking and concluded that women who take up smoking are more at risk than men of developing coronary heart disease.

After reviewing data on 2.4 million people and 44,000 “cardiac events”, the article’s authors found female smokers have a 25 per cent greater risk of coronary heart disease than males who smoke cigarettes.

Some data indicate women will absorb more of the harmful agents in a cigarette compared to men. Rachel Huxley

Interpreting the findings, researchers said: “Whether mechanisms underlying the sex difference in risk of coronary heart disease are biological or related to differences in smoking behaviour between men and women is unclear.

“Tobacco-control programmes should consider women, particularly in those countries where smoking among young women is increasing in prevalence.”

Difference increased yearly

The research also found the difference in risk for male and female smokers increased by two per cent for every year they smoke.

The study’s lead researcher, Rachel Huxley, said thus far it had not been widely recognised that there is such a difference in the impact of smoking on each sex.

The findings could be attributed to physical differences between men and women, or differences in smoking habits, according to the study.

Ms Huxley said: “For example, there are some data that indicate women will absorb more of the harmful agents in a cigarette compared to men. Women may inhale more smoke or they may smoke more intensively.”

A fifth of the world’s 1.1 billion smokers are women and an analysis released in March said millions of women in developing countries risked disease and death as their rising economic and political status leads them to smoke more.