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Smoking, diabetes and high blood pressure increase the risk of a heart attack more in women than in men, new research from The George Institute for Global Health at the University of Oxford has found.

Photograph of a red hear made of puzzle pieces with a stethoscope on top

The study, of 472,000 participants aged 40-69, found that smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure and having a BMI ≥25 puts both men and women at increased risk of having a heart attack.

However, while male current smokers have over twice the risk of a heart attack than men who have never smoked, female smokers were found to have over three times the risk of women who have never smoked, giving them a so-called ‘excess risk'.

An excess risk was also found among women with high blood pressure, and Type I and Type II diabetes, but not with a high BMI.

Find out more (University of Oxford website)