Study of nearly 4 million people shows that statins do NOT prevent heart attacks
Study title and authors:
No connection between the level of exposition to statins in the population and the incidence/mortality of acute myocardial infarction: An ecological study based on Sweden's municipalities.
Staffan Nilsson, Sigvard Molstad, Catarina Karlberg, Jan-Erik Karlsson and Lars-Goran Persson
Division of Community Medicine, Department of Medicine and Health Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University, S-581 83 Linköping, Sweden
This study can be accessed at: http://www.jnrbm.com/content/10/1/6/abstract
The objective of the study was to investigate if a relation can be detected between heart attack mortality or incidence and statin utilisation, for men and women in different age-groups.The study included a total of 3,922,094 people (1,926,113 men and 1,995,981 women) aged 40-79 years.
The study revealed:
(a) The rate of statin use increased almost three times for both men and women between 1998 and 2002.
(b) The numbers of people suffering or dying from heart attacks was not reduced.
Nilsson concluded: Despite a widespread and increasing utilisation of statins, no correlation to the incidence or mortality of heart attacks could be detected. Other factors than increased statin treatment should be analysed especially when discussing the allocation of public resources.
Study title and authors:
No connection between the level of exposition to statins in the population and the incidence/mortality of acute myocardial infarction: An ecological study based on Sweden's municipalities.
Staffan Nilsson, Sigvard Molstad, Catarina Karlberg, Jan-Erik Karlsson and Lars-Goran Persson
Division of Community Medicine, Department of Medicine and Health Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University, S-581 83 Linköping, Sweden
This study can be accessed at: http://www.jnrbm.com/content/10/1/6/abstract
The objective of the study was to investigate if a relation can be detected between heart attack mortality or incidence and statin utilisation, for men and women in different age-groups.The study included a total of 3,922,094 people (1,926,113 men and 1,995,981 women) aged 40-79 years.
The study revealed:
(a) The rate of statin use increased almost three times for both men and women between 1998 and 2002.
(b) The numbers of people suffering or dying from heart attacks was not reduced.
Nilsson concluded: Despite a widespread and increasing utilisation of statins, no correlation to the incidence or mortality of heart attacks could be detected. Other factors than increased statin treatment should be analysed especially when discussing the allocation of public resources.
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