The view of the general public that heart disease is more likely to strike Irish men rather than women needs to be challenged, the chairwoman of the Women's Health Council has said.
Coinciding with the publication of a position paper on Women and Cardiovascular Health by the council, Prof Cecily Kelleher warned: "Women are more likely to die from coronary heart disease than from breast cancer. Heart attacks and strokes kill as many women as all cancers combined."
A chapter on socio-economic risk factors notes that the rate of heart disease increases from 90 per 100,000 women in the professional socio-economic group to 279 per 100,000 in semi-skilled and unskilled groups.
It calls on the Department of Social and Family Affairs to exploit to the full its community programmes to help prevent heart disease in disadvantaged areas of the State.
Noting that smoking is a particular concern, the document says there is an urgent need for further research on gender-specific smoking cessation strategies.
"Women have been found to have different reasons for smoking, for quitting and have different responses to pharmacological agents," it states.
The position paper says health services must be expanded to take account of the increasing number of older women in the population both at risk of, and surviving heart disease.
A recommendation on physical activity says teenage girls and older women in particular must be targeted by exercise programmes.
"In order to be effective, health promotion programmes must take account of the barriers to physical activity that have been found among women such as a lack of leisure time due to household and caring responsibilities."
Compared with other European countries, the Republic has the second highest rate of heart disease amongst women. More than 4,200 women die here each year from cardiovascular illness.