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A large new study suggests that statins may help more people with type 2 diabetes than previously thought.
Researchers found that the cholesterol-lowering drugs reduced the risk of death and serious cardiovascular events not only in high-risk patients, but also in those considered low-risk based on standard 10-year heart disease predictions, according to a press release.
While statins are commonly prescribed to people with diabetes, there has been uncertainty about whether patients with a low predicted risk of cardiovascular disease would benefit from taking them.
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To explore this, researchers from the University of Hong Kong analyzed health records from a large U.K. medical database known as IQVIA Medical Research Data.
The study included adults aged 25 to 84 with type 2 diabetes who had no serious heart disease or liver problems when the study began. Participants were followed for as long as 10 years, allowing researchers to track long-term outcomes.
The researchers compared people who started taking statins with similar people who did not take them.
They also grouped patients based on their estimated 10-year risk of developing cardiovascular disease, ranging from low-risk to higher-risk. This allowed them to assess whether statins were helpful only for higher-risk patients or across the board.
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The results, which were published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, showed that statins were linked to meaningful benefits for all groups.
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Adults with type 2 diabetes who took the medications were less likely to die from any cause and less likely to experience major cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks or other serious heart-related complications.
These benefits were seen even among patients who were considered low-risk based on standard prediction tools, the researchers noted.
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In terms of safety, the study claims to have found little cause for concern. A very small increase in muscle-related side effects, known as myopathy, was observed in one risk group. However, there was no increased risk of liver problems, which is often a concern with statin use.
Study limitations
There may be important differences among people that the data couldn’t fully capture, the researchers wrote in the study publication.
Some health-related factors that were not measured, such as lifestyle habits, diet, exercise, or how closely people follow medical advice, could have affected the outcome, they added.
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Also, some hospital events may not have been fully recorded in the data. That means a few hospitalizations or complications might have been missed or not counted, which could slightly affect the accuracy of the findings.
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The researchers recommend that clinicians should consider the potential benefits of statin therapy for most adults with type 2 diabetes, even when short-term cardiovascular risk appears low.
Patients with type 2 diabetes should speak with their doctor before starting or changing statin therapy, as individual health factors, potential side effects and personal cardiovascular risk should be considered.
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