The risk of diabetes rises as adherence with statin therapy increases

This study was published in Diabetes Care 2014 Jun 26. pii: DC_132215

Study title and authors:
Statins and the Risk of Diabetes: Evidence From a Large Population-Based Cohort Study.

Corrao G, Ibrahim B, Nicotra F, Soranna D, Merlino L, Catapano AL, Tragni E, Casula M, Grassi G, Mancia G.
Department of Statistics and Quantitative Methods, Division of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy giovanni.corrao@unimib.it.

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24969582

The objective of the study was to investigate the relationship between adherence with statin therapy and the risk of developing diabetes. The seven year study included 115,709 patients who were newly treated with statins. Adherence was measured by the proportion of days covered with statins.

The study found: 
(a) Compared with patients with very-low adherence (proportion of days covered less then 25%) those with low adherence (proportion of days covered 26-50%) had a 12% increased risk of developing diabetes.
(b) Compared with patients with very-low adherence (proportion of days covered less then 25%) those with intermediate adherence (proportion of days covered 51-75%) had a 22% increased risk of developing diabetes.
(b) Compared with patients with very-low adherence (proportion of days covered less then 25%) those with high adherence (proportion of days covered more than 75%) had a 32% increased risk of developing diabetes.

Corrao concluded: "In a real-world setting, the risk of new-onset diabetes rises as adherence with statin therapy increases".