A study of more than 165,000 people suggests that fewer than half of those who are prescribed statins reach the desired level of cholesterol within two years of starting to take the drugs.
In England, doctors are recommended to prescribe statins to people deemed to be at a high risk of heart disease, with the goal of lowering their LDL cholesterol levels by 40 per cent or more. But the analysis, which looked at data from between 1990 and 2016, found that statins achieved this within two years in only 49 per cent of those taking them.
Those who didn鈥檛 see their cholesterol drop by the target amount were found to be 22 per cent more likely to develop cardiovascular disease than those who did. The team behind the work say these people聽鈥渨ill experience significantly increased risk鈥� of heart disease in future.
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鈥淭hese findings contribute to the debate on the effectiveness of statin therapy and highlight the need for personalised medicine in lipid management for patients,鈥� the team, from the University of Nottingham, UK, write.
Statins work by lowering blood cholesterol levels. Some researchers argue that there is no link between cholesterol levels in the blood and levels of atherosclerosis 鈥� the furring of the arteries that can lead to heart attacks 鈥� but this claim is strongly rejected by many cardiologists and cholesterol researchers.
Metin Avkiran, at King鈥檚 College London, says statins are an 鈥渋mportant and proven treatment for lowering cholesterol and reducing the risk of a potentially fatal heart attack or stroke鈥�.
Avkiran says people currently taking statins should continue to take them as prescribed. 鈥淎lthough this study suggests that not everyone who is prescribed statins manages to reduce their cholesterol sufficiently, it doesn鈥檛 explain why,鈥� he says.
It may be that these people were prescribed low dose or low potency statins, didn鈥檛 take their medication as they were told to, or that they were prescribed the wrong type of statins for them, says Avkiran.
Journal reference: Heart,
