Statins in Patients with Coronary Disease Who Are Older than 80

For people in their 80s and 90s who have no history of cardiovascular disease, using statins for primary prevention is unlikely to confer substantial benefit. But what about prescribing statins for patients in this age group who have known coronary disease?

In this single-center study from Washington University in St. Louis, researchers conducted a retrospective analysis of 1262 older patients (age, ≥80; median age, 85) who were discharged alive after hospitalizations for acute myocardial infarction, unstable angina, or chronic coronary disease; 72% were discharged on statins, and 28% were not. In two types of analyses with propensity-score adjustments for baseline differences between statin recipients and nonrecipients, a small but statisti…