A new study found that cholesterol-lowering statin drugs can help prevent cardiovascular disease (CVD) development regardless of how old patients are when treatment begins.
Even in people who made it to age 85 or beyond without having coronary heart problems or strokes, the benefits and safety of starting therapy with statins for preventing those outcomes were clear, according to a report published on Monday (27/5) in Annals of Internal Medicine.
In patients younger than 75, the benefits of statins for primary prevention - for preventing a first heart attack or heart disease – are well documented. Studies in older patients had been lacking, until now.
At the University of Hong Kong, researchers used health record data to calculate the effects of starting versus not starting statin therapy in roughly 43,000 closely matched people ages 75 to 84, and 6,000 closely matched people age 84 and older. They all had no history of heart disease but did carry risk factors such as unhealthy cholesterol levels plus high blood sugar, obesity, smoking, diabetes, or high blood pressure.
Researchers found that over 5 years, the risk of developing CVD was reduced:
- by 6% overall in patients aged 75-84 and
- by 15% in patients over 85.
The effects were even stronger in patients who adhered very closely to the treatment instructions.
The researchers also found no increased risk of muscle or liver problems in the treated patients.
“Considering the increasing burden related to CVD in the aging population, our study results support the prescription of statin therapy for primary prevention of CVD in old and very old adults,” the researchers concluded.