Patients with diabetes experience a lower mortality rate with common medications

A large new study suggests that statins may help more people with type 2 diabetes than previously thought.

Researchers found that 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 according to standard 10-year predictions of heart disease, according to a news 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 at the University of Hong Kong analyzed medical records from a large UK medical database known as IQVIA Medical Research Data.

The study included adults ages 25 to 84 with type 2 diabetes who did not have serious heart disease or liver problems when the study began. Participants were followed for up to 10 years, allowing researchers to track long-term outcomes.

Researchers compared people who started taking statins with similar people who didn’t take them.

They also grouped patients according to their estimated 10-year risk of developing cardiovascular disease, from low risk to highest risk. This allowed them to evaluate whether statins were useful only for higher-risk patients or in general.

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The results, which were published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, showed that statins were associated with significant benefits for all groups.

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Adults with type 2 diabetes who took the drugs 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 considered low risk by 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 seen in one risk group. However, there was no increased risk of liver problems, which is often a concern with statin use.

Limitations of the study

There may be important differences between people that the data could not fully capture, the researchers wrote in the study publication.

Some health-related factors that were not measured, such as lifestyle habits, diet, exercise or the extent to which medical advice was followed, could have affected the result, they added.

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Additionally, some hospital events may not have been fully recorded in the data. That means some 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 doctors consider the potential benefits of statin treatment for most adults with type 2 diabetes, even when the short-term cardiovascular risk appears low.

Patients with type 2 diabetes should talk to their doctor before starting or changing statin treatment, as individual health factors, possible side effects, and personal cardiovascular risk must be considered.