Stopping Statins Noninferior to Continuing Them in Older Adults without Known CVD

Among older adults with at least two chronic conditions but no known cardiovascular disease, discontinuing statin therapy was noninferior to continuing it with respect to major cardiovascular events or death from any cause at 2 years. In this international, open-label, randomized, controlled trial, 1,880 adults aged 70 years or older who were taking statins for primary prevention were randomly assigned 1:1 to discontinue or continue statin therapy; the mean age was 77.5 years and 46.9% were women. The between-group difference in restricted mean event-free survival time at 2 years was −2.0 weeks. Over a median follow-up of 103 weeks, primary-outcome events occurred in 119 participants (12.7%) in the discontinuation group and 87 (9.2%) in the continuation group, and at least one serious adverse event occurred in 43.0% versus 39.8%, respectively. These findings suggest that stopping statins may be a reasonable option in this population. Source: https://www.nejm.org/