Findings show 53 percent increased survival among patients using statins before hospitalization
MONDAY, March 15, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Prehospitalization statin use is associated with lower inpatient mortality among patients hospitalized with COVID-19, according to research published online Feb. 26 in Nature Communications.
Aakriti Gupta, M.D., from New York-Presbyterian Hospital and the Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City, and colleagues analyzed data from 2,626 patients admitted with COVID-19 from Feb. 1 through May 12, 2020, with follow-up ending June 11, 2020. Using data from electronic medical records, the authors assessed previous statin use.
The researchers found that 36.2 percent of participants were antecedent statin users. In a propensity score-matched cohort of 1,296 patients (648 statin users and 648 nonusers), statin use was associated with significantly lower odds of the primary end point of in-hospital mortality within 30 days (odds ratio, 0.47), with the primary end point occurring in 14.8 and 26.5 percent of patients receiving statins and those not receiving statins, respectively. The secondary endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilation at 30 days occurred in 18.6 and 21.9 percent of patients receiving statins and those not receiving statins, respectively (odds ratio, 0.76).
“If their beneficial effect bears out in randomized clinical trials, statins could potentially prove to be a low-cost and effective therapeutic strategy for COVID-19,” a coauthor said in a statement.
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