Statin therapy significantly reduces major vascular events irrespective of age, but less direct evidence is available on the benefit of statins for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in people aged >75 years. These observations come from a meta-analysis performed by the Cholesterol Treatment Trialists’ Collaboration.

The meta-analysis included 28 randomized, controlled trials on statins involving a total of 186,854 participants, of whom 8% were aged >75 years at randomization. For each 1 mmol/l reduction in LDL-cholesterol level, statins reduced the overall risk of major vascular events by 21% and vascular death by 12%. The proportional reduction in major vascular events was slightly smaller with increasing age, but the trend was not significant. Smaller proportional reductions in vascular death with age were also observed (Ptrend = 0.004), but the trend did not persist after exclusion of four trials on patients with heart failure or who were receiving renal dialysis, in whom statin therapy has little or no benefit. The proportional reductions in major coronary events diminished with age (Ptrend = 0.009) and persisted after exclusion of the heart failure and dialysis trials.

Interestingly, although the proportional reduction in major vascular events was similar irrespective of age in patients with a history of vascular disease (that is, in secondary prevention), the proportional risk reductions were smaller in older than in younger participants with no known vascular disease (Ptrend = 0.05). The investigators speculate that this trend might be due, among other reasons, to a reduced capacity for statins to affect advanced atherosclerosis and to greater diagnostic uncertainty at older ages. Trials to assess statin therapy for the primary prevention of CVD in old people are ongoing.