Do I need a statin? New study suggests some with a prescription may not.
A new way of determining heart disease risk may result in millions fewer people getting prescriptions for statins, according to new research.
A new way of determining heart disease risk may result in millions fewer people getting prescriptions for statins, according to new research. Heart doctors warned, however, that more information is needed and patients shouldn’t stop taking their medications.
Statins, such as Lipitor, Crestor and Zocor, are widely used to protect against high levels of LDL cholesterol, one of the causes of cardiovascular disease. Doctors prescribe the daily pills based on 2013 guidelines from the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology, which estimate risk based on a patient’s age, diabetes, blood pressure and other factors.
For the new study, Dr. Tim Anderson, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues analyzed the potential impact of a new heart disease risk calculator, dubbed PREVENT, that was released by the American Heart Association last year. Looking at data from 3,785 adults, ages 40 to 75, who were participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), the researchers compared estimates from the new calculator to older guidelines.
The heart association’s new calculator was developed to give a more accurate assessment of a person’s likelihood of developing heart disease by incorporating newly recognized risk factors, such as kidney disease and obesity.
The researchers found that among the participants, the 10-year risk of developing heart disease determined with the new tool was about half that estimated with the previous one, according to the report published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.
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