Prevalence and Factors Associated With Statin Use Among a Nationally Representative Sample of US Adults: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2011–2012. Issue 9 (9th August 2016) - Adedinsewo, Demilade
Abstract : The 2013 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines recommend statins for adults age ≤75 years who have clinical atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (IA) and adults age 40 to 75 years with diabetes mellitus and LDL‐C 70–189 mg/dl (IA). Our aim was to estimate the prevalence and likelihood of statin use among selected statin benefit groups. Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011–2012, we examined 5319 adults age ≥20 years. We estimated weighted frequencies and prevalence of statin use for adults with diabetes mellitus and dyslipidemia (or low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol ≥70 mg/dL), defined as statin benefit group 1 (SBG1); and for adults with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, defined as statin benefit group 2 (SBG2). We constructed a logistic regression model to estimate odds of statin use in SBG1. Overall, an estimated 38.6 million Americans are on a statin. In adjusted models, uninsured and Hispanic adults were less likely to be on a statin compared with white adults; 59.5% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 53.0‐66.1) of all adults in SBG1, 58.8% (95% CI: 51.5‐66.1) of adults age 40 to 75 in SBG1, and 63.5% (95% CI: 55.6‐71.4) of all adults in SBG2 were on a statin. Although the prevalence of statin use has increased over time, Hispanic ethnicity and lack of insurance remain barriers to statin use. Black‐white racial disparities were not significant. Our study provides a baseline estimate of statin use in the noninstitutionalized population just prior to introduction of the new guidelines and provides a reference for evaluating the impact of the new guidelines on statin utilization.