UK study findings suggest that angina – chest pain that is a sign of heart disease – is just as common in women as in men, indicating that the condition's prevalence may have been underestimated in the female population.

The chest pains that are characteristic of angina are due to an insufficient amount of oxygen reaching the heart muscle. This is caused by a narrowing and hardening of the blood vessels that supply the heart with oxygen.

Angina is more likely to occur in people with risk factors for heart disease, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, smoking and obesity, as well as those with a family history of the condition.

For their study, Professor Harry Hemingway, from University College London Medical School, and colleagues studied the medical records of more than 100,000 angina patients between the ages of 45 and 89 years.

They found that angina affects one in every 50 women each year – a rate similar to that observed among men.

However, further analysis revealed that women with angina were less likely to have the condition confirmed in diagnostic tests and were more likely to die of heart disease then men with angina.

Professor Hemingway said: "For women, angina is a more significant public health problem than many doctors, or indeed the general public, realise. Women develop angina at a similarly high rate as men. And the angina which women experience is not benign in terms of death rates.

"We need to understand why women are relatively protected from heart attack but not from angina, and ensure fair access to investigation and treatment services."

Also commenting on the findings, Professor Peter Weissberg, medical director of the British Heart Foundation, which funded the study, added that because women tend to be protected from angina until after the menopause, it has traditionally been thought of as a predominantly male affliction.

He said: "This study confirms that after the age of 45 years, women get as much angina as men but, worryingly, they tend to fare worse than men when they get it.

"It reinforces our view that women with angina should receive prompt and appropriate treatment to reduce their risk of suffering a heart attack."

The research is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.