Statins Linked to Reduced Mortality With Dementia

Statin use is associated with lower mortality and stroke risk in patients with dementia, according to the results of a study recently presented at the 5th European Academy of Neurology Congress.

"Survival in patients in dementia is variable, and previous studies have identified many factors associated with survival and risk of stroke in these patients", commented first author Bojana Petek, MD, from the University Medical Center Ljubljana, Slovenia and the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. "However, the effect of statins on these 2 outcomes is not clear.

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To further explore this association, the researchers analyzed data from 44,920 Swedish patients with dementia from the Swedish Dementia Registry from 2008 to 2015.

Overall, the researchers observed a 22% lower risk of all-cause mortality and a 23% lower risk of stroke in patients with dementia who used statins than in those who did not use statins. Further, the effects of statins were greater in those patients who were younger than 75 years (27% reduction) and men (26% reduction) than in women (17% reduction) and older patients (20% reduction). Those with vascular dementia saw a 29% reduction in mortality risk.

Despite the nature of the study making it impossible to prove a causal relationship, lead author Sara Garcia-Ptacek, MD, PhD, from the Karolinska Institutet, Sweded, said “[O]ur results are encouraging and suggest that patients with dementia benefit from statins to a similar extent than patients without dementia."

—Michael Potts

Reference:

EAN2019: New research links statins with reduced mortality in dementia patients [press release]. July 1, 2019. https://www.epgonline.org/uk/news/ean2019--new-research-links-statins-with-reduced-mortality-in-dementia-patients.html.