Quality of life in patients with statin intolerance: a multicentre prospective registry study

Statin intolerance is associated with increased cardiovascular risk. Symptoms and patients' characteristics are incompletely known. We aimed to analyse the health-related quality of life (QOL) associated with statin intolerance.

The Statin Intolerance Registry (SIR) is an observational, prospective, multicentre study that included 1111 patients, with intolerance to at least two different statins, between 2021 and 2023 in Germany. SIR baseline data were compared to individuals with and without statin therapy of the population-based LIFE-Adult Study (n = 9983).

The mean age in SIR was 66.1 years (standard deviation (SD) 9.9). The cohort was characterized by a higher proportion of women compared to patients on statins in LIFE-Adult (57.7% vs. 38.2%). SIR patients had impaired QOL (mean EQ VAS score of 64.9 (SD 18.1)) as measured by EuroQol (EQ-5D-5L)), which further deteriorated with age. Muscle symptoms were frequent (95.8%) and were associated with severe pain in 43.2% and intake of pain medication in 32.3% of statin intolerant patients. 10.3% had a diagnosis of depression. Women reported more pronounced symptoms than men. A data-driven k-means analysis, based on variables predicting severity of pain while on statin therapy, identified five clusters of SIR patients. The clusters differed in sex, prevalence of depression, QOL, comorbidities, and expectations to tolerate statin therapy.

Statin intolerance is associated with impaired QOL. Women are more frequently and severely affected. The identified clusters may help to identify patients at risk and to develop individualized strategies to improve patient trajectories and outcomes.

Leipzig University, research grants from Daiichi Sankyo, Novartis, and Amgen to Leipzig University.