Statin use was associated with a 10-month delay before newly treated diabetic subjects needed to start insulin treatment.
It has been suggested that HMG Co-A reductase inhibitors (‘statins’) may reduce the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes mellitus. This study was designed to evaluate whether use of statins would also delay progression to insulin therapy.
This was a retrospective cohort study using Saskatchewan Health databases to identify subjects newly started on oral antidiabetic agents from 1991 to 1996. Subjects < 30 years of age or with previous lipid-lowering drug use were excluded. Medications known to influence glycemic control, co-morbidity, and demographic data were collected. Statin exposure was defined as at least 1 year of use. Primary outcome was starting insulin treatment.
The results showed that the final cohort included 10996 new users of oral antidiabetic agents, of which 484 (4.4%) used statins. Mean age was 64 years and 55% were male. Mean duration of follow-up was 5.1 years; 11.1% (n = 1221) eventually started insulin treatment. Statin users were no less likely than non-users to start insulin treatment eventually (11.6% vs. 11.1%, P = 0.74).
After multivariate adjustment, however, statin use was associated with a 10-month delay before newly treated diabetic subjects needed to start insulin treatment
From the results it was concluded that the use of statins is associated with a delay in starting insulin treatment in patients with Type 2 diabetes initially treated with oral antidiabetic agents. Whether this relationship exists for patients at high risk of developing diabetes should be examined in a randomized trial. Diabet. Med. Sept (2004)
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