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Whether to prescribe statins for primary prevention in older patients is controversial. In this meta-analysis, researchers analyzed individual-participant data from 28 large randomized statin trials and focused on participants who were ≥75 — who comprised only 14,500 of about 187,000 total participants. Median treatment duration was 5 years. Key findings were as follows:
In analyses that combined primary and secondary prevention populations, statistically significant benefits with statins were noted in all age groups; for each mmol/L (38.7 mg/dL) reduction in LDL cholesterol level, relative reductions in major vascular events were 22% in those younger than 75 and 13% in those 75 or older.
In the older group, the 13% relative reduction corresp…