Statin dose and risk of incident diabetes?

January 01, 0001

Statin dose and risk of incident diabetes?

A recent meta-analysis found a link between statin therapy and increased risk of developing new onset diabetes. This international group of investigators examined whether such increased risk was dose dependent. They searchers MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials for randomized controlled trials comparing intensive- and moderate-dose statin therapy, supplemented with unpublished data obtained from investigators.

The researchers found: "In 5 statin trials with 32 752 participants without diabetes at baseline, 2749 developed diabetes (1449 assigned intensive- dose therapy, 1300 assigned moderate-dose therapy, representing 2.0 additional cases in the intensive-dose group per 1000 patient-years) and 6684 experienced cardiovascular events (3134 and 3550, respectively, representing 6.5 fewer cases in the intensive-dose group per 1000 patient-years) over a weighted mean (SD) follow-up of 4.9 (1.9) years. Odds ratios were 1.12) for new-onset diabetes and 0.84 for cardiovascular events for participants receiving intensive therapy compared with moderate-dose therapy. As compared with moderate-dose statin therapy, the number needed to harm per year for intensive- dose statin therapy was 498 for new-onset diabetes while the number needed to treat per year for intensive-dose statin therapy was 155 for cardiovascular events."

The researchers concluded: "In a pooled analysis of data from 5 statin trials, intensive-dose statin therapy was associated with an increased risk of new-onset diabetes compared with moderate-dose statin therapy."

This meta-analysis finds evidence that the increased risk of incident diabetes with statin use increased with larger doses of statins

For the full abstract, click here.

JAMA 305(24):2556-2564, 22 June 2011 © 2011 American Medical Association
Risk of Incident Diabetes With Intensive-Dose Compared With Moderate-Dose Statin Therapy. David Preiss, Sreenivasa Rao Kondapally Seshasai, Paul Welsh, et al.

Category: T. Endocrine/Metabolic/Nutritional. Keywords: statin, cholesterol, diabetes, dose, incident, systematic review and meta-analysis, journal watch.
Synopsis edited by Dr Paul Schaefer, Toledo, Ohio. Posted on Global Family Doctor 5 July 2011

Pearls are an independent product of the Cochrane primary care group and are meant for educational use and not to guide clinical care.

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