Compliance in Primary Prevention With Statins and Associations With Cardiovascular Risk and Death in a Low‐Risk Population With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Background We examined whether primary prevention with statins and high adherence to statins reduce the associated risk of cardiovascular events or death in a low‐risk population with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D). Methods and Results Using Danish nationwide registers, we included patients with new‐onset T2D, aged 40 to 89 years, between 2005 and 2011, who were alive 18 months following the T2D diagnosis (index date). In patients who purchased statins within 6 months following T2D diagnosis, we calculated the proportion of days covered (PDC) within 1 year after the initial 6‐month period. We studied the combined end point of myocardial infarction, stroke, or all‐cause mortality, whichever came first, with Cox regression. Reported were standardized 5‐year risk differences for fixed comorbidity distribution according to statin treatment history, stratified by sex and age. Among 77 170 patients, 42 975 (56%) were treated with statins, of whom 31 061 (72%) had a PDC ≥80%. In men aged 70 to 79 years who were treated with statins, the standardized 5‐year risk was 22.9% (95% CI, 21.5%–24.3%), whereas the risk was 29.1% (95% CI, 27.4%–30.7%) in men not treated, resulting in a significant risk reduction of 6.2% (95% CI, 4.0%–8.4%), P