Recent statin use and 1-year incidence of exudative age-related macular degeneration

To determine whether the statin class of drug is protective against exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Case-control study.

The study was conducted at Kaiser Permanente Southern California. Cases was defined as incident cases, identified using outpatient diagnosis data. Controls were patients who had seen an ophthalmologist during the same year without the diagnosis of AMD. Drug use information was obtained using computerized databases.

In 2007, 86 635 patients older than 60 years underwent an eye examination. Cases comprised 719 patients newly diagnosed with exudative AMD. Controls (78 650) comprised everyone else who did not have any form of AMD. Use of statins was not associated with newly diagnosed exudative AMD.

Recent statin use is not associated with newly diagnosed exudative AMD. The current study had 80% statistical power to detect a protective effect of 0.70, but it cannot exclude a smaller effect.