Statins reduce dementia risk among people with heart failure, according to a report published Jan. 16 in Lancet Regional Health.
Heart failure and dementia have many similar pathological mechanisms, the report explained. Some research has indicated that heart failure can drive the development of dementia. But there aren’t a lot of studies looking at how to intervene for dementia in those with heart failure.
Statin use, meanwhile, has been tied to a reduced risk for all-cause dementia. It can lower lipid levels, ease inflammation and reduce amyloid proteins that play a part in dementia.
For the research, a team evaluated people who had heart failure and were hospitalized between 2004 and 2018. The researchers followed up with the people until 2020. The database was from the Hong Kong Hospital Authority.
Of the people searched, 104,295 patients had heart failure; 54,004 took statins and 50,291 didn’t. The mean age was 74.2; 52,511 of the participants were male.
Next, the researchers looked at four types of statins (simvastatin, atorvastatin, rosuvastatin and fluvastatin) and their effects on the risk for getting Alzheimer’s disease (AD), vascular dementia and unspecified dementia. The participants were put into groups based on their low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) levels.
After an average 9.9-year follow up, 10,031 of the people had dementia: 2,250 had Alzheimer’s disease, 1,831 had vascular dementia and 5,950 had unspecified dementia.
That is, 11% of people who didn’t use statins had overall dementia while 7.3% of statin users developed it. Taking a statin lowered the risk of dementia compared with non-use by 20%.
Compared to those who didn’t use a statin, statin users had a 28% lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease, 18% lower risk of vascular dementia and 20% lower risk of unspecified dementia. Taking the medicine lowered the risk of all-cause mortality by 30%.
