Date Time Women face higher risk of death or heart failure following a heart attack: study Women face a 20 per cent higher risk than men of dying or having heart failure during the five years following a heart attack, according to a new study from University of Alberta cardiology researchers. “The women were on average a decade older than men at the time of their first heart attack and they more commonly presented with the less severe type of heart attack,” said lead author Justin Ezekowitz, professor of medicine and co-director of the Canadian VIGOUR Centre. “But when they were faced with the more severe type of heart attack, they did develop heart failure more often.”