Women with diabetes have a six-fold risk of suffering a heart attack.

That’s the troubling conclusion of new research presented this week by medical investigators from the Institute of Cardiology in Warsaw, Poland, at a meeting of the European Society of Cardiology.

The study, which tracked 7,386 women aged 45 years and under with diabetes, also found that young women who had a heart attack were more likely to be smokers than older women.

"Cardiovascular diseases affect mainly the elderly, but for many years an increase in incidence has been observed in young people as well, regardless of gender," said Hanna Szwed, who helped conduct the study.

"The World Health Organization estimates that CVDs cause more than 52 percent of all deaths in women and the number continues to rise. Up to 1 percent of all heart attacks are in young women."

Among the researchers’ findings:

• The strongest risk factor for heart attack was diabetes, which increased risks six-fold.
• High blood pressure increased heart attack risk by four times.
• High cholesterol tripled the risk.
• Smoking upped the risk by 1.6 times.