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A study has found that statin therapy effectively prevents cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality in adults aged 60 and older, including those over 85, without increasing the risk of adverse events. Statins, often hailed as a “wonder drug,” are a class of lipid-lowering medications that significantly reduce cholesterol levels in the blood. These drugs inhibit the enzyme HMG-CoA reductase, which plays a crucial role in the production of cholesterol in the liver.

By lowering cholesterol, statins help prevent the development of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), including heart attacks and strokes. They are commonly prescribed for both the treatment and prevention of CVD, making them integral to modern cardiovascular therapeutics. A new study of adults aged 60 years and older has now found that the use of statin therapy as primary cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention was effective for preventing CVD and all-cause mortality, even in adults aged 85 years and older.



The study is published in Annals of Internal Medicine. Researchers from the University of Hong Kong used a target trial emulation design to investigate the relationship between statin therapy and CVD risk using electronic health records (EHRs) from the Hong Kong Hospital Authority. The study included adult patients over 60 without preexisting diagnosed CVDs who met indications for statin treatment from January 2008 to December 2015.

Patients with prior statin use, lipid-lowering drug use, cancer, myopathies, .

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