In MESA cohort, statin use not associated with diabetes
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In an observational study of participants from the MESA cohort, statin use was not associated with incident diabetes, researchers reported in The American Journal of Cardiology.
In addition, risk for diabetes related to statin use did not vary by baseline level of coronary artery calcium, according to the researchers.
Previous randomized trials have shown a small effect of statin use on increased risk for incident diabetes, but “it is well known that trial participants may not represent patients commonly seen in clinical practice,” Mahmoud Al Rifai, MD, MPH, a cardiovascular imaging fellow at Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center, and colleagues wrote. “In addition, evidence from trials has drawn from largely homogeneous samples of white participants, so the association of statin and new-onset diabetes in more racially diverse populations is unknown.”
The researchers analyzed 5,943 participants from MESA (mean age, 62 years; 54% women; 41% white; 26% Black; 12% Chinese American; 21% Hispanic) who were followed for a median of 15.7 years.
In an unadjusted analysis, statin use was associated with new-onset diabetes (statin users, 9.3 per 1,000 person-years; nonusers, 6.1 per 1,000 person-years; HR = 1.62; 95% CI, 1.27-2.06).
However, after adjustment for sociodemographic and CV risk factors, the relationship between statin use and new-onset diabetes was no longer significant (adjusted HR = 1.13; 95% CI, 0.83-1.54), according to the researchers.
The HR for new-onset diabetes associated with statin use was lower in patients with a CAC score of zero (aHR = 0.8; 95% CI, 0.45-1.4) compared with those with a CAC score of 1 to 99 (aHR = 1.3; 95% CI, 0.71-2.39) and those with a CAC score of 100 or more (aHR = 1.39; 95% CI, 0.85-2.28), but the difference was not significant, Al Rifai and colleagues wrote.
The results “may suggest that the higher risk of diabetes with statin is at least partly due to shared risk with CAC,” the researchers wrote.
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