Which risk factors for coronary heart disease are significantly greater for women than for men?

Diabetes mellitus is recognized as a significant risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD), and research indicates that its impact on women is more pronounced than it is for men. Women with diabetes have a higher relative risk of developing coronary heart disease compared to their male counterparts. This increased risk is thought to be due to the different biological responses to diabetes between men and women, as well as the presence of other risk factors that often coincide with diabetes in women, such as dyslipidemia and hypertension. Therefore, the presence of diabetes poses a more serious threat to women's cardiovascular health, leading to a greater incidence of CHD.

While smoking, hypertension, and obesity also contribute to heart disease risk, their effects are more comparable between genders. For instance, smoking rates have shown similar trends in both men and women, and while hypertension and obesity are important risk factors, they do not demonstrate the same gender disparity in their association with increased risk for coronary heart disease as diabetes does. Thus, diabetes mellitus stands out as a particularly significant risk factor that poses a greater threat to women than to men in the context of coronary heart disease.