TOPLINE

Older adults who started statins, including patients with prefrailty at baseline, had a lower risk for incident frailty than those who did not.

METHODOLOGY

• Researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study to assess whether starting statins was associated with a lower risk of developing frailty among older adults.
• They included 987,301 US adults aged 67 or older who received regular care within the Veterans Affairs (VA) health system from 2002 to 2018 (mean age, 72.5 years; 98.5% men).
• Older adults were classified as statin initiators once they filled their first prescription and were compared with those who never started statins. Comparisons were adjusted using propensity scores weighting.
• The primary outcome was the incidence of frailty, assessed using a 31-item index. Frailty status was classified as robust (index score < 0.1), prefrail (index score, 0.1-0.2), or frail (index score > 0.2).
• The mean follow-up duration was 5.3 years.

TAKEAWAY

• During follow-up, 636,195 events of incident frailty occurred.
• Older adults who started statins had a lower risk for incident frailty than those who did not start (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 0.76; 95% CI, 0.75-0.76).
• In older adults with prefrailty, initiating statins was linked to a lower risk for incident frailty (aHR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.78-0.79).
• The benefit was observed across all subgroups and was greater at older age and in individuals with diabetes or at a high risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

IN PRACTICE

“New statin initiation may lower the risk of incident frailty. Future studies are warranted to evaluate the benefits of statins in the primary prevention of frailty,” the researchers concluded.

SOURCE

The study was led by Saadia Qazi, DO, of VA Boston Healthcare System in Boston. It was published online on June 10 in the European Heart Journal.

LIMITATIONS

The study mostly included White men, limiting generalizability. The study was observational and unmeasured confounding factors may have remained. Researchers identified frailty from claims data, which may have introduced bias. 

DISCLOSURES

Two authors reported receiving support from sources including the US Department of VA research programs, the National Institute on Aging, and the Patient‑Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.