The risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) is 25% greater in women who smoke cigarettes than in male smokers, independent of other cardiovascular risk factors. This finding comes from a systematic review and meta-analysis of data from more than 2.4 million people worldwide. The authors of the report, published in the Lancet, believe that this figure could even be an underestimate and the actual female risk is higher; "the relative immaturity of the smoking epidemic among women compared with men, as well as the fact that women tend to smoke fewer cigarettes than men, are [likely to be] important in driving the underestimation" explains Dr Rachel Huxley.
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