Not long after guidelines shifted to considering statin therapy as early as age 30, new research from France suggests there may be no harm in stopping the cholesterol-lowering drugs at age 75 in people with no history of cardiovascular disease. The lessons, however, may not translate elsewhere.
The “non-inferiority” study, published Tuesday in the Lancet Healthy Longevity, does not advise doctors to tear up statin prescriptions for older people. Nor does it conclude that going off statin therapy is better than staying on. It does say patients should talk to their doctors to see if they’d be no worse off for dropping the daily pills.
Invoking patient choice, the authors highlight the lack of scientific literature on older people, noting what research does exist has found the link between cholesterol and cardiovascular events weakens with age. They believe their own study needs to be repeated for a longer period of time and extended to populations at higher cardiovascular risk or otherwise not as healthy as their participants.
“For the majority of American patients over the age of 75, this trial will not change anything,” Romit Bhattacharya, a general and preventive cardiologist from the Mass General Brigham Heart and Vascular Institute, told STAT in an interview. He was not involved in the research. “It does give us a little bit of permission and greater flexibility and choice for our individuals who maybe have a short time horizon to live and who are already quite healthy and engaged in care.”
