Life, death, and statins: association of statin prescriptions and survival in older general practice patients

This study serves as an exemplar to demonstrate the scalability of a research approach using survival analysis applied to general practice electronic health record data from multiple sites. Collection of these data, the subsequent analysis, and the preparation of practice-specific reports were performed using a bespoke distributed data collection and analysis software tool. Statins are a very commonly prescribed medication, yet there is a paucity of evidence for their benefits in older patients. We examine the relationship between statin prescriptions for general practice patients over 75 and all-cause mortality. We carried out a retrospective cohort study using survival analysis applied to data extracted from the electronic health records of five Australian general practices. The data from 8025 patients were analysed. The median duration of follow-up was 6.48 years. Overall, 52 015 patient-years of data were examined, and the outcome of death from any cause was measured in 1657 patients (21%), with the remainder being censored. Adjusted all-cause mortality was similar for participants not prescribed statins versus those who were (HR 1.05, 95% CI 0.92-1.20, = 0.46), except for patients with diabetes for whom all-cause mortality was increased (HR = 1.29, 95% CI: 1.00-1.68, = 0.05). In contrast, adjusted all-cause mortality was significantly lower for patients deprescribed statins compared to those who were prescribed statins (HR 0.81, 95% CI 0.70-0.93, < 0.001), including among females (HR = 0.75, 95% CI: 0.61-0.91, < 0.001) and participants treated for secondary prevention (HR = 0.72, 95% CI: 0.60-0.86, < 0.001). This study demonstrated the scalability of a research approach using survival analysis applied to general practice electronic health record data from multiple sites. We found no evidence of increased mortality due to statin-deprescribing decisions in primary care.