Fewer than 60 percent of people who live with diabetes are taking cholesterol-lowering statin drugs that are recommended to reduce their risk of heart disease. A study published by UW-Madison researchers examined this trend among veterans with diabetes and found that statin use in this population is increasing, but slowly.   

Meghan Brennan, MD, MS, assistant professor (CHS), Infectious Disease, was quoted in an article about the retrospective study published in Journal of Diabetes Complications in September, 2017. The investigation analyzed the use of statin therapy among military veterans with diabetes. 

Dr. Brennan and colleagues analyzed statin use data from all patients with diabetes above the age of 40 who were treated in the VA health care program over a 9-year period. 

Within the cohort at baseline, 54.9 percent had cardiovascular disease. Over the subsequent nine years, statin use increased from 42.6 percent to 59.2 percent. 

Dr. Brennan and colleagues wrote, "To best focus future interventions that improve compliance with ADA guidelines on statin use, we pose the following question: Should we target the relatively low-risk group of patients with diabetes, where the number of patients not on a statin is the greatest, but the individual risk reduction may be the least?" 

Resources:

• Brennan MB, Huang ES, Lobo JM, Kang H, Guihan M, Basu A, Sohn MW. 2017. Longitudinal trends and predictors of statin use among patients with diabetes. J Diabetes Complications. [Epub ahead of print]
• "Statin use slowly increasing among patients with diabetes," Endocrinology Today, October 3, 2017