A research presented at European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress says women aged 45 years and under with diabetes have a six-fold risk of heart attack. The study in more than 7000 women also found that young women who had a heart attack (myocardial infarction, MI) were more likely to be smokers than older women with MI.

“Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) affect mainly the elderly, but for many years an increase in incidence has been observed in young people as well, regardless of gender,” said Professor Hanna Szwed, last author and head of the 2nd Department of Coronary Artery Disease, Institute of Cardiology in Warsaw, Poland.

The average age among young MI patients in the study was 42 years (range 21-45 years). Multivariate analysis showed that four out of five classic risk factors were independent predictors of MI in young women. The strongest was diabetes which increased MI risk by six-fold. Arterial hypertension increased risk by four times while hypercholesterolemia tripled risk and current smoking increased risk by 1.6 times. There was no statistical significance for obesity expressed by body mass index (BMI).

Professor Szwed said: "The lack of a correlation with obesity could be because of the overwhelming influence of diabetes in this population. We also found that the risk of MI in young women increased with the number of coexisting factors."

Read More