Diabetes patients experience lower death rate with common medication

A large new study suggests that statins may help more people with type 2 diabetes than previously thought.

Researchers found that the cholesterol-lowering drugs reduced the risk of death and serious cardiovascular events not only in high-risk patients, but also in those considered low-risk based on standard 10-year heart disease predictions, according to a press release.

While statins are commonly prescribed to people with diabetes, there has been uncertainty about whether patients with a low predicted risk of cardiovascular disease would benefit from taking them.

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To explore this, researchers from the University of Hong Kong analyzed health records from a large U.K. medical database known as IQVIA Medical Research Data.

The study included adults aged 25 to 84 with type 2 diabetes who had no serious heart disease or liver problems when the study began. Participants were followed for as long as 10 years, allowing researchers to track long-term outcomes.

The researchers compared people who started taking statins with similar people who did not take them. 

They also grouped patients based on their estimated 10-year risk of developing cardiovascular disease, ranging from low-risk to higher-risk. This allowed them to assess whether statins were helpful only for higher-risk patients or across the board.

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The results, which were published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, showed that statins were linked to meaningful benefits for all groups.

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Adults with type 2 diabetes who took the medications were less likely to die from any cause and less likely to experience major cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks or other serious heart-related complications.

These benefits were seen even among patients who were considered low-risk based on standard prediction tools, the researchers noted.

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In terms of safety, the study claims to have found little cause for concern. A very small increase in muscle-related side effects, known as myopathy, was observed in one risk group. However, there was no increased risk of liver problems, which is often a concern with statin use.

There may be important differences among people that the data couldn't fully capture, the researchers wrote in the study publication.

Some health-related factors that were not measured, such as lifestyle habits, diet, exercise, or how closely people follow medical advice, could have affected the outcome, they added.

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Also, some hospital events may not have been fully recorded in the data. That means a few hospitalizations or complications might have been missed or not counted, which could slightly affect the accuracy of the findings.

The researchers recommend that clinicians should consider the potential benefits of statin therapy for most adults with type 2 diabetes, even when short-term cardiovascular risk appears low.

Patients with type 2 diabetes should speak with their doctor before starting or changing statin therapy, as individual health factors, potential side effects and personal cardiovascular risk should be considered.