Statins for Older Adults: A Cost-Effective Way to Reduce Heart Disease and Stroke Risk

Heart disease and stroke are leading causes of death and disability worldwide. As you age, your risk of heart disease and stroke increases. Statins are drugs that reduce this risk by lowering the level of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the so-called “bad” cholesterol in your blood.

Researchers at the University of Oxford in the UK have concluded that taking statins is highly beneficial to the health of people over 70 in terms of cost-effectiveness, regardless of whether they have cardiovascular disease or not.

Study Findings

Borislava Mikhailova, professor of population health at the University of Oxford, who published the research findings in the online edition of the journal Heart, said: “Many people around the world suffer from preventable diseases due to lack of access to effective and affordable treatments such as heart disease and stroke.”

Professor Mikhailova and her colleagues assessed the health benefits of taking statins in older people in the UK and found that they were associated with better health outcomes in people aged over 70, regardless of history of cardiovascular disease.

The researchers studied 5,103 people with cardiovascular disease and 15,019 people without, and measured cardiovascular risk, survival rate, quality-adjusted life years (QAELs), and expected medical costs due to statin use.

Benefits of Statins

The researchers found that taking statins, especially at higher doses, significantly increased quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). QALY is a measure used by the UK’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to assess whether a treatment is worth providing in the public health system.

The researchers calculated that lifetime use of standard statin therapy (35% to 45% reduction in bad cholesterol) increased quality-adjusted life years from 0.24 to 0.70, and use of high-intensity statin therapy (45% or more reduction in bad cholesterol) added QALY increases from 0.04 to 0.13.

Cost-Effectiveness

For standard statin use, the cost per quality-adjusted life year was estimated at less than £3,500 (approximately KRW 6.13 million), and for high-intensity therapy, the cost was estimated at less than £12,000 (approximately KRW 21.03 million), much lower than NICE standards.

Expert Opinions

Dr Sonia Babu-Narayan, a cardiologist and deputy chief medical officer at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Statins have revolutionised the prevention of heart attacks and strokes.”

Dr Mashkur Khan, head of the department of geriatrics and gerontology at the Royal Society of Medicine, said: “The use of new statins could significantly reduce cardiovascular risk in frail older people, which could also have positive effects on cognitive function and the prevention of dementia.”