20% of high-cholesterol patients refuse statins: study

One in five people with high cholesterol refuse to take prescribed life-saving statin medication, according to a new study. Statins lower the amount of cholesterol in the blood, preventing this fat from building up within and ultimately blocking a person’s coronary arteries.

The US-based study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reviewed the medical data of 24,212 US citizens using artificial intelligence and natural language processing technology to find that one in five Americans refused to accept statin therapy despite being at high risk of developing heart disease.

The study also found that women were more likely than men to refuse to take statins when prescribed, and also less likely than men to achieve good cholesterol control within 12 months from diagnosis.

Patients who accepted a statin therapy recommendation by their clinicians achieved an LDL cholesterol level of less than 100 mg/dL in a median time of 1.5 years vs 4.4 years for patients who did not accept statin therapy. Women were significantly less likely than men to accept statin therapy recommendations and achieve an LDL cholesterol level of less than 100 mg/dL.

The Heart Foundation said the study was the first of its type and more work would need to be done to understand what was causing the reluctance, but the results are cause for concern.

“Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death among Australian women,” said Natalie Raffoul, Healthcare Programs Manager at the Heart Foundation.

“High cholesterol impacts 6.5 million Australians — including 3.6 million Australian women — and is well recognised as a leading risk factor for heart attacks in Australia.

Raffoul said statin therapy is the gold standard and commonly regarded as having been critical to the reduction in cardiovascular death in Australia over the last 50 years.

The study’s findings are in line with existing evidence that patient adherence to statin therapy was poor, she added.

“This new study suggests that even before the point of being prescribed a medication, acceptance of statin therapy is poor too.

“We have more work to do to understand what is causing this reluctance so that we can improve the uptake of statins among those who are prescribed them,” Raffoul said.

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