Statin use increases the risk of osteoarthritis and joint pain by 26%

This study was published in the American Journal of Medical Sciences 2013 May;345(5):343-8

 

Study title and authors:

Incidence of musculoskeletal and neoplastic diseases in patients on statin therapy: results of a retrospective cohort analysis.

Mansi IA, Mortensen EM, Pugh MJ, Wegner M, Frei CR.

Brooke Army Medical Center, Department of Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas 78234-6200, USA. Iishak.mansi@us.army.mil

 

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22975580

This study was conducted to investigate the incidence of various musculoskeletal diseases in statin users and nonusers. The study included 12,980 statin users and 45,997 nonusers who were followed for four years.

The study found:
(a) Statin users had a 26% increased risk of osteoarthritis and arthropathy (joint pain) compared to non-users.
(b) Statin users had a 20% increased risk of dorsopathies (back or spinal pain), rheumatism (joint and connective tissue problems) and chondropathies (cartilage disease) compared to non-users.