Combining population health and baseline risk strategy by determining an age cutoff for initiating statins in...

Strategies for initiating statin use among adult patients with diabetes for primary cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention include treating all patients (assuming diabetes is a coronary risk equivalent) or treating patients who are at risk of developing CVD. The aim of the study was to combine both strategies to derive an appropriate age cutoff for prescribing statins. By considering different strategies, we also aim to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of different strategies to reduce CVD events.

This was a cross-sectional primary care population study using electronic patient files from 304 general practitioner practices in England and Wales. Of 60,258 patients with diabetes, 11,005 men and women aged 30-74 years fullfilled criteria for primary CVD prevention. Model outcomes were extrapolated to an estimated national diabetes prevalence of 3.6%.

The age transition from a low-risk to a moderate-risk category for diabetic men and women occurred at ages 40.6 and 44.2 years, respectively, and sensitivity and specificity for fulfilling moderate CVD risk criteria were 97.9 and 61.8% for men and 92.0 and 77.0% for women. When applied to the national population, the age cutoff strategies were an effective and efficient strategy, potentially avoiding 11,094 events with a number needed to treat of 25.1.

A strategy to treat all men and women with diabetes aged >40 and 45 years, respectively, with statins showed good compromise between high effectiveness and high efficiency for reducing CVD events. Strategy to intervene if cholesterol was >5 mmol/l was the least effective and efficient in preventing CVD events.