Statins may lower dementia risk in hypercholesterolemia patients, finds study

Korea: Exposure to a statin in patients with hypercholesterolemia is associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer's disease and dementia, a recent study in the Journal of Internal Medicine has found.

The study by Jae‐woo Lee, Chungbuk National University Hospital, Cheongju, Korea, and colleagues was aimed to examine the association between statin exposure and dementia risk in hypercholesterolemia patients using data from the NHIS‐HEALS database between 2002 and 2015.

The patients were classified into two groups: statin exposure and statin non-exposure in accordance with medication possession ratio. Dementia was defined as those with primary diagnostic dementia codes such as F00‐F03, G30, G31.1, G31.9, or G31.82. The prospective association between statin exposure and dementia risk were investigated using Cox proportional hazards regression models.

The patients were followed for a median of 11.7 years. During the follow-up, 711 cases of dementia occurred, accounting for 11.5% of the total study population (statin exposure group, 8.2%; statin non-exposure group, 12.9%). 

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Key findings of the study include:

"Hypercholesterolaemic individuals exposed to statin had a lower risk of overall dementia and Alzheimer's disease and related dementia in both sexes, and a lower risk of other types of dementia in women, than subjects who were not exposed to statins," concluded the authors. 

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The study, "Statin exposure and the risk of dementia in individuals with hypercholesterolemia," is published in the Journal of Internal Medicine.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/joim.13134