The combination of cardiovascular risk factors has a greater impact on blacks versus whites, and in women versus men, according to a new study published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.

Cardiovascular disease involves a number of conditions which affect the function of the heart, including heart attack, arrythmias, cardiomyopathy, heart valve disease, and coronary artery disease, among others.

Lead study author Susan Cheng, M.D., M.P.H., and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Mass., and colleagues analyzed changes in population attributable risk (PAR) for heart risk factors including smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and obesity. The PAR helps determine how much specific risk factors increase the odds of developing cardiovascular disease in the future.

The researchers studied information on 13,541 participants, then calculated the contribution of each PAR risk factor to the likelihood of developing cardiovascular disease over the next decade.

They discovered that the contribution of diabetes and high blood pressure to cardiovascular disease is higher in women than men.

“We’ve been targeting traditional risk factors in public health campaigns for many years. We wanted to take a look at how well we’ve been doing over time at keeping these risk factors from causing heart and vascular disease — both by preventing the risks from occurring and by minimizing their effects when they do occur,” said Cheng in a statement.

The findings of the study suggest a need for more targeted approaches to modifying risk factors in order to lower the overall burden of cardiovascular risks.