SYDNEY, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- Women with a high genetic risk of depression are more likely to develop heart disease, an Australian research has found.

Researchers from the University of Queensland (UQ) analyzed genetic and health data from over 340,000 people and found that women who had a high genetic risk of depression also had a high risk of heart disease, even in the absence of a depression diagnosis, said a news release published on UQ's website on Thursday.

"In our study, the link between the genetic risk of depression and developing a cardiovascular disease was seen even among women who had never been diagnosed with depression or taken any psychiatric medications," Sonia Shah, a co-author of the study from UQ's Institute for Molecular Bioscience, said.

"However, this link was not observed in men, despite an overall greater proportion of men developing heart disease."

She said that the variation between men and women could also not be explained by differences in body mass index (BMI), smoking, blood pressure or cholesterol, all major risk factors for heart disease.

Heart disease is a group of conditions that affect the heart and blood vessels, It is the leading cause of death globally, accounting for 32 percent of all deaths in 2019, according to the World Health Organization.

Previous research has found that the risk of heart disease for women increases after menopause, but the new study found that the depression-linked risk was present regardless of whether the women were pre or post-menopause.

Shah said the findings highlight that women with a history of depression should be frequently assessed for heart disease risk regardless of their age or menopausal stage. Enditem

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