Having high cholesterol may be a bigger health danger for men than women, new research suggests.

Norwegian scientists have discovered that men with high cholesterol are more likely to have heart attacks than women with high cholesterol levels.

The researchers concluded that middle-aged men with a high cholesterol profile have a major additional risk of heart attack compared to women with similar cholesterol levels.

In the study on adults under the age of 60, three times as many men as women had a heart attack.

The researchers collected information on 23,525 women and 20,725 men.

During nearly 12 years of follow-up on people who were younger than 60 when the survey was carried out, there were 157 new cases of heart attack in women and 553 in men.

The researchers believe the findings show that men should be treated more actively in terms of cholesterol-lowering.

At present, guidelineds provided to doctors for managing cholesterol levels do not differentiate between male and female patients.

The research, carried out by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, is published in the journal Epidemiology.