COVID-19 mortality lower among patients on pre-existing statin medication

Patients already on statin medication upon infection seem to have lower mortality rates from the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), a recent study has found.

Researchers retrospectively assessed 2,626 COVID-19 patients admitted between 1 February and 12 May 2020. The principal study outcome was in-hospital mortality occurring within 30 days of admission, while mechanical ventilation during the same time span was a secondary outcome. The impact of antecedent statin use on the outcomes was estimated.

Approximately a third (n=951; 36.2 percent) of the participants had antecedent statin use upon admission. These patients tended to be older, but no other differences in baseline demographics were recorded. In terms of comorbidities, hypertension, diabetes, coronary artery disease, chronic kidney disease, and heart failure were all more common among statin users.

One-to-one propensity matching yielded a final cohort size of 1,296 patients, of whom 648 were on statins. Previously detected characteristic differences were attenuated in this cohort.

Ninety-six statin users ultimately died, lower compared to 172 deaths in the nonuser group. The resulting mortality rates were also different (14.8 percent vs 26.5 percent), corresponding to a significantly suppressed odds of death associated with antecedent statin use (odds ratio [OR], 0.47, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.36–0.62; p<0.001).

Multivariable adjustment did not meaningfully alter the findings, such that antecedent statin use remained statistically protective against in-hospital mortality within 30 days among COVID-19 patients (OR, 0.49, 95 percent CI, 0.38–0.63).

Statin use was also correlated with a reduction in the likelihood of the secondary outcome, though only achieving borderline significance (OR, 0.80, 95 percent CI, 0.64–1.02).