13 year study of nearly one million individuals shows that statins significantly increase the risk of shingles in older people

This study was published in Clinical Infectious Disease 2013 Nov 13

Study title and authors:
Statins and the risk of herpes zoster: a population-based cohort study.

Antoniou T, Zheng H, Singh S, Juurlink DN, Mamdani MM, Gomes T.
Department of Family and Community Medicine, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario.

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24235264

This study examined the association between statin use and incidence of herpes zoster (shingles). The study included 494,651 individuals treated with a statin and an equal number of untreated individuals. The participants were aged 66 years of age or older and the study lasted for 13 years.

The study found:
(a) Those who used statins had a 13% increased risk of shingles compared to nonusers.
(b) Those who used statins had a 4% increased risk of knee arthroplasty compared to nonusers. (Knee arthroplasty involves replacing a damaged, worn or diseased knee with an artificial joint).

This 13 year study of nearly one million individuals shows that statins significantly increase the risk of shingles in older people.