Primary Prevention with Statins: How Much Risk Reduction Do People Expect?

Guidelines on statins for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease emphasize use of baseline risk in decision-making, but comparatively less emphasis is given to absolute risk reduction. The 2018 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines recommend consideration of statins when patients have 10-year atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk of 5%; however, at this risk level, estimated absolute risk reduction for adverse cardiovascular events is quite low (≈1%).

To determine whether patients at various risk levels would consider taking statins, researchers surveyed ≈500 people (mean age, 56) in Japan or the United States who had no prior statin use (see Figure 1). Participants were asked about t…