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Published on: March 1, 2024
Adherence to statins and the risk of psoriasis: a population-based cohort study
G Chodick1,2, D Weitzman1,3, V Shalev1,2
1Medical Division, Maccabi Healthcare Services, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Background:
Statins have been shown to downregulate immune mechanisms activated in psoriasis. However, previous studies on their potential role in preventing psoriasis have yielded conflicting results.
Objectives:
To assess the relationship between adherence to statins and the risk of psoriasis.
Methods:
This retrospective cohort study included 205,820 health plan enrollees in Israel (mean age 55 years; 54·1% women) who initiated statin treatment from January 1998 through to September 2009. Adherence to statins, measured by the proportion of days covered (PDC), throughout the entire follow-up period (mean 6·2 years) was recorded. Diagnosis codes of psoriasis were assigned by a dermatologist or rheumatologist, or at discharge from hospital.
Results:
During 1·28 million person-years (PY) of follow-up (median 5·74 years per person; interquartile range 3·78-8·36), 5615 cases of psoriasis (incidence density rate 4·4 per 1000 PY) were recorded. Compared with patients who did not adhere to statins (PDC < 20%), patients covered by statins for 40-59% of the time had a significantly lower risk of psoriasis (P < 0·05), with hazard ratios (HRs) of 0·84 and 0·74 among men and women, respectively. Among patients who adhered better to statins (PDC ≥ 80%), HRs were 0·88 (95% CI 0·79-0·98) and 1·00 (95% CI 0·90-1·11) among men and women, respectively.
Conclusions:
The results of the current study suggest that high and long-term adherence to statins is not associated with a meaningful reduction in the risk of developing psoriasis.
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