Lifestyle and health factors linked to heart disease are shown to have a greater impact on cardiovascular risk in women than in men, according to a study presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session. While diet, exercise, smoking, and blood pressure have long been associated with heart disease risk, this study is the first to suggest that these correlations are more pronounced in women. Researchers believe that implementing sex-specific screening and risk assessment methods could lead to a more realistic understanding of cardiovascular risk, ultimately encouraging healthier habits.
“For the same level of health, our study shows that the increase in risk [related to each factor] is higher in women than in men-it’s not one-size-fits-all,” said Dr. Maneesh Sud, MD, PhD, an interventional cardiologist and the study’s lead author at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. “This is novel and hasn’t been seen in previous studies.”
The research analyzed eight factors related to heart disease: diet, sleep, physical activity, smoking, body mass index, blood glucose, lipids, and blood pressure. The findings revealed that women generally presented fewer negative risk factors and more positive ones than men. However, women with multiple negative risk factors exhibited a significantly higher risk of experiencing heart attacks, strokes, or other cardiovascular events compared to men with similar risk profiles.
“We found that women tend to have better health than men, but the impact on outcomes is different,” Sud stated. “The combination of these factors has a bigger impact in women than it does in men.”
The study assessed data from over 175,000 Canadian adults who participated in the Ontario Health Study from 2009 to 2017. None of the participants had heart disease at the outset, and approximately 60% were women. Each participant was categorized based on their health in relation to the eight risk factors, resulting in profiles classified as poor, intermediate, or ideal.
During an average follow-up of just over 11 years, researchers monitored seven heart disease outcomes among participants in each category, including heart attack, stroke, unstable angina, peripheral arterial disease, heart failure, coronary revascularization, and cardiovascular death.
In this population, a notably higher percentage of women were classified as having ideal health-9.1% of women achieved a perfect score compared to 4.8% of men. Conversely, women were less likely to be deemed as having poor health, with 21.9% in this category versus 30.5% of men. Women were found to have better scores in individual risk factors like diet, blood glucose, cholesterol, and blood pressure, although they were slightly less likely than men to achieve ideal levels of physical activity.
After adjusting for age, it was found that both men and women with poor or intermediate health faced elevated risks of heart disease compared to those with ideal health. However, these differences were more pronounced in women. Women with poor health had nearly five times the risk of heart disease compared to those with ideal health, while men had 2.5 times the risk. Women classified with intermediate health were at 2.3 times the risk, compared to 1.6 times for men under the same category.
Further research is necessary to explore how different factors may differently impact health outcomes for men and women, influenced by biological and sociocultural factors. The researchers also plan to conduct additional analyses to investigate variations in risk factor impacts among different racial and ethnic groups, as well as among women before and after menopause.
Original Source: https://www.sentinelassam.com/topheadlines/lifestyle-risks-weigh-heavier-on-womens-hearts-study
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Publish Date: 2025-07-11 06:11:00
