Statins are commonly prescribed to manage high cholesterol in people up to age 75 and are known to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.
But until now, it was unclear whether they were effective in older people.
New research from Monash University, published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented concurrently at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2026, found that statin therapy decreased the risk of a first major cardiovascular event by 30% for independently living adults older than 70.
The Statins in Reducing Events in the Elderly (STAREE) Trial is the first randomized controlled trial of statin therapy to examine whether the drugs could help older people who have historically been overlooked in clinical trials.
This landmark 10-year trial analyzed the cardiovascular outcomes of nearly 10,000 participants while they took either a statin or a placebo.
