Prior statin use linked to lower mortality risk in hospitalized patients with COVID-19
Preexisting cholesterol-lowering statin use was associated with reduced risks for mortality and morbidity outcomes in hospitalized patients with COVID-19, a study found.
“While there is no ‘magic bullet’ to help patients who are very ill with COVID-19, statins decrease inflammation, which may help reduce the severity of the disease,” Ettore Crimi, MD, MBA, a professor of anesthesiology at the University of Central Florida, said in a press release. “Results of our study clearly showed regular statin use is associated with reduced risk of death and improved outcomes in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.”
Crimi and colleagues — who presented their research at the American Society of Anesthesiologists annual meeting — examined the electronic health records of qualifying hospitalized patients with COVID-19 (n = 38,875) across 185 hospitals between Jan. 1, 2020, to Sept. 30, 2020.
Of the patients who met the study criteria, 11,533 had prior statin use, while 27,342 had no history of statin use.
Crimi and colleagues found that 30% of participants (mean age, 70 years) were chronic statin users, while 70% (mean age, 58 years) were statin nonusers.
Overall, statin users had a 37% lower risk for mortality from COVID-19, according to the release.
Compared with nonusers, the researchers reported that chronic statin users had lower odds of:
- all-cause mortality (OR = 0.69; 95% CI, 0.64-0.75);
- mortality from COVID-19 (OR = 0.63, 95% CI, 0.58-0.69);
- discharge to hospice (OR = 0.79; 95% CI, 0.68-0.88);
- ICU admission (OR = 0.69; 95% CI, 0.66-0.74);
- severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) with COVID-19 (OR = 0.72; 95% CI, 0.66-0.79); and
- critical ARDS with COVID-19 (OR = 0.57; 95% CI, 0.52-0.61).
Chronic statin users also had lower rates of severe sepsis with septic shock (OR = 0.66; 95% CI, 0.57-0.76) and thrombosis (OR = 0.46; 95% CI, 0.30-0.72).
Statin users were also significantly more likely to have a shorter hospital stay and a briefer duration of mechanical ventilation.
Crimi said their research shows the importance of evaluating medicine for repurposed uses and suggests “statins could be an additional cost-effective solution against COVID-19 disease severity and should be studied further.”
References:
- Crimi E, et al. Preexisting use of statins is associated with decreased mortality and morbidity outcomes in hospitalized patients with COVID-19. Presented at: American Society of Anesthesiologists annual meeting; Oct. 21-25, 2022; New Orleans.
- Regular use of common cholesterol-lowering drug linked to reduction of COVID-19 severity, risk of death. https://www.asahq.org/about-asa/newsroom/news-releases/2022/10/regular-use-of-common-cholesterol-lowering-drug-linked-to-reduction-of--covid19-severity. Published Oct. 22, 2022. Accessed Oct. 25, 2022.