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Statin use not associated with AMD risk
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The use of statin drugs was not associated with a decreased risk of age-related macular degeneration in the short or medium term in a population-based study conducted in England.
In a case-controlled study, Liam Smeeth and colleagues at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine assessed the risk of AMD associated with the use of statins in 18,007 people diagnosed with AMD and 86,169 people without AMD. The primary outcome was the odds ratio for the association between exposure to statins and AMD.
The mean age of the participants was 77 years, and 66% were women. Most participants with statin prescriptions were taking simvastatin only.
The crude odds ratio for association between statin use and AMD was 1.32, but this was reduced to 0.93 after adjusting for consultation rate, smoking, alcohol intake, body mass index, atherosclerotic disease, hyperlipidemia, heart failure, diabetes, hypertension, use of cardiovascular drugs and use of fibrates. The risk did not vary regardless of statin dose, duration of use or type of statin drugs used.
“We have reported the largest and most powerful study to address the relation between statin use and AMD yet undertaken,” the authors claim in the September issue of the British Journal of Ophthalmology. “In the short and medium term, statins do not seem to be associated with a decreased risk of AMD. Whether long term treatment with statins reduces the risk of AMD and whether subgroups of patients with specific forms of AMD (particularly choroidal neovascularization) benefit from statin therapy remains a possibility.”