In a new study, researchers found that the use of statins is strongly linked to a reduction in the risk of death in dementia patients.
The research was conducted by a team from the University Medical Center Ljubljana, Slovenia, and the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.
The risk of dementia increases exponentially with age, affecting 5% of the population over 65, and up to 50% by 90 years of age.
Previous research has shown that many factors were linked to survival and risk of stroke in dementia patients.
However, the effect of statins on health outcomes in the patients is not clear.
The new study analyzed 44,920 Swedish dementia patients from the Swedish Dementia Registry between 2008-2015 to solve the problem.
The team found users of statins had a 22% lower risk of all-cause death compared with people who did not use the drugs.
The research also demonstrated that statin users had a 23% reduction in the risk of stroke.
Patients with mild dementia were three times more likely to have a stroke and those with severe dementia were seven times more likely to have the disease.
The team found that the protective effect of statins on survival was strong for patients younger than 75 years (27% reduction) and in men (26% reduction) but women and older patients also benefited (17% and 20% reduction respectively).
In addition, patients with vascular dementia—the second most common type of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease—also saw a 29% lower mortality risk.
The lead author of the study is Bojana Petek, MD.
The study was presented at the 5th European Academy of Neurology (EAN) Congress.
Copyright © 2019 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
