Even when they know they might be at risk of heart disease, women are less likely to change habits such as smoking, eating fattening foods and not getting enough exercise in comparison to men. Women tend to stick to their habits even when they have relatives with heart disease, a fact which is known to increase a person’s risk of cardiovascular disease.

Led by Dr. Amit Khera, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center analysed data on more than 2,400 people between the ages of 30 and 50. A first-degree relative with history of heart attacks before the age of 50 in men and 55 in women was considered as family history of premature heart disease by the researchers.

The data used by them was gathered as part of the Dallas Heart Study in which more than 6,000 multi-ethnic patients were examined for cardiovascular disease. The participants were checked for blood pressure and heart-rate three times during the study in addition to being asked to fill in detailed in-home surveys. They also went through imaging tests for checking calcium buildup in their coronary arteries.

The researchers checked for risk factors for cardiovascular disease such as coronary artery calcification, risk perception and lifestyle choices in the young women to correlate these with family history of heart disease. The data thus gathered was then compared with similar data gathered for the men in the study population.

They found increased prevalence of early heart disease in the form of fatty deposits and calcium in the arteries of those who had family histories of heart disease. The researchers observed highest rate of tobacco use among young women with family histories of heart disease – 40% – in comparison to 25% in those without any such histories.

Women with cardiovascular disease histories were also found to have high body-mass index rates of 51% compared to only 44.4% among women with no such histories. The BMI rates were on the higher side despite women in the former group having lower rate of sedentary lifestyles – 40.1% compared to 43.9%.

Men on the other hand had lesser differences in these areas with 37% of men with family histories and 34.8% of those without using tobacco. High BMI readings were also found in 38.1% men with histories as compared to 30.3% of those without. 20.7% of the men from the former group were more regularly active while this figure for men from the latter group was 38.2%.

Further analysis revealed that women with a family history of heart disease were more likely than men to stick to their habits of smoking and infrequent physical activity. The women were also found to be more prone to give in to the temptation of a lifestyle that increased their risk of heart disease than women without any history of heart disease.

“A family history of heart disease is as important an indicator of future cardiovascular health in women as it is in men – perhaps more important,” said Dr. Amit Khera, Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and senior author of the study published in the American Heart Journal. “And yet there is an under-appreciation of cardiovascular-disease risk among young women, which may contribute to unfavorable trends in important lifestyle choices such as quitting smoking and increasing physical activity.”

“Although the prevalence of cardiovascular disease is generally low for young women, the consequences can be more severe,” Dr. Khera said. “For instance, women are twice as likely as men to have fatal heart attacks. It’s important that women get this message and make appropriate lifestyle changes. The earlier you make lifestyle changes, the more you decrease your risk factors for heart disease in the future,” he added.

“It’s equally important that physicians ask questions about family history because you don’t need a blood test or any fancy diagnostic tests to uncover a trend. If a patient has a family history of heart attacks, they have an increased risk of heart disease and warrant further studies and more aggressive risk factor changes,” Dr. Khera concluded.

Source: Heartzine.com