Statin discontinuation was noninferior to continuation in regard to all-cause mortality over 3 years among people ages 75 and older in a randomized trial.Statin discontinuation was not linked to changes in quality of life, symptom burden, or adverse event rates, suggesting that patients who are tolerant to statins might have no concrete benefit from stopping therapy.Ongoing studies are expected to provide more answers.
Experts were still unsure whether stopping primary prevention statins in the elderly was a good idea following the report of a modestly sized randomized trial.
In Statins in the Elderly (SITE, also known as SAGA), statin discontinuation was noninferior to continuation in regard to all-cause mortality over 3 years among people ages 75 and older who were longtime users of the therapy and had no history of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD).
Overall, 7.9% of those who continued statins and 7.2% of those who discontinued statins died, with the upper bound of the between-group difference 95% confidence interval falling within the prespecified noninferiority margin of 5%, reported a group led by Fabrice Bonnet, PhD, of Hôpital Saint-André, CHU de Bordeaux in France, in Lancet Healthy Longevity.
