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That puff hurts women’s hearts more
They Have 25% Greater Chance Of Coronary Heart Disease Than Men, Says Study
New Delhi: Women smokers are at a 25% higher risk of developing coronary heart diseases than men, a study published in British medical journal The Lancet on Thursday says. The authors of the study said this could be due to physiological differences between the two sexes, with smoke toxins having a more potent effect on women.
In India, more and more women are now taking to smoking. According to the Tobacco Atlas, the country ranks third among the top 20 female smoking populations across the globe. With around a crore women smokers in India, only the US with 2.3 crore female smokers and China with 1.3 crore female smokers, are worse off.
The study by Dr Rachel R Huxley from University of Minnesota and Dr Mark Woodward from Johns Hopkins University involved a meta-analysis of around four million individuals and 67,000 coronary heart disease events from 86 studies. The researchers found that the pooled adjusted female-to-male relative risk ratio (RRR) of smoking compared with not smoking for coronary heart disease (CHD) was 1.25 (25%) higher for women.
This RRR increased by 2% for every additional year of follow-up, meaning that the longer a woman smokes, the higher her risk of developing CHD compared to a man who has smoked for the same time.
The authors say: "The finding lends support to the idea of a pathophysiological basis for the sex difference. For example, women might extract a greater quantity of carcinogens and other toxic agents from the same number of cigarettes than men. This occurrence could explain why women who smoke have double the risk of lung cancer compared with their male counterparts."
Worldwide, there are 1.1 billion smokers, of whom a fifth are women.
Every year, more than 5 million deaths occur that are directly attributed to tobacco, with 1.5 million of these deaths occurring in women. These figures are projected to increase to 8 million female smokers and 2.5 million deaths in women by 2030 if present patterns of smoking persist.
Dr Matthew Steliga from the University of Arkansas says: "What makes the realization that women are at increased risk worrisome is that the tobacco industry views women as its growth market."
Cigarette smoking is one of the main causes of coronary heart disease worldwide.
STOKING THE FIRE
India 3rd on list of top 20 female-smoking populations in world with a crore of women smokers
The longer the woman smokes, her risk of developing CHD rises by 2% compared to men
Every year, about 1.5 million women die of smoking
"What makes the realization worrisome is that the tobacco industry views women as its market growth"
—Dr Matthew Steliga, University of Arkansas
The study by Dr Rachel R Huxley from University of Minnesota and Dr Mark Woodward from Johns Hopkins University involved a meta-analysis of around four million individuals and 67,000 coronary heart disease events from 86 studies. The researchers found that the pooled adjusted female-to-male relative risk ratio (RRR) of smoking compared with not smoking for coronary heart disease (CHD) was 1.25 (25%) higher for women.
This RRR increased by 2% for every additional year of follow-up, meaning that the longer a woman smokes, the higher her risk of developing CHD compared to a man who has smoked for the same time.
The authors say: "The finding lends support to the idea of a pathophysiological basis for the sex difference. For example, women might extract a greater quantity of carcinogens and other toxic agents from the same number of cigarettes than men. This occurrence could explain why women who smoke have double the risk of lung cancer compared with their male counterparts."
Worldwide, there are 1.1 billion smokers, of whom a fifth are women.
Every year, more than 5 million deaths occur that are directly attributed to tobacco, with 1.5 million of these deaths occurring in women. These figures are projected to increase to 8 million female smokers and 2.5 million deaths in women by 2030 if present patterns of smoking persist.
Dr Matthew Steliga from the University of Arkansas says: "What makes the realization that women are at increased risk worrisome is that the tobacco industry views women as its growth market."
Cigarette smoking is one of the main causes of coronary heart disease worldwide.
STOKING THE FIRE
India 3rd on list of top 20 female-smoking populations in world with a crore of women smokers
The longer the woman smokes, her risk of developing CHD rises by 2% compared to men
Every year, about 1.5 million women die of smoking
"What makes the realization worrisome is that the tobacco industry views women as its market growth"
—Dr Matthew Steliga, University of Arkansas
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