Regular statin use offers protection against diabetes in acute pancreatitis patients

Regular statin users appear to be at lower risk of developing diabetes mellitus following an episode of acute pancreatitis, as shown in a study.

The study used data from a commercial insurance claim database (Optum Clinformatics) and included 118,479 patients without pre-existing diabetes who were admitted for a first episode of acute pancreatitis.

Researchers defined regular statin usage as filled statin prescriptions for at least 80 percent of the year prior to acute pancreatitis. They applied Cox proportional hazards regression modelling to estimate the risk of PPDM in relation to statin use, accounting for competing events.

The patients were followed for a median of 3.5 years. The 5-year cumulative incidence of post-pancreatitis diabetes mellitus (PPDM), the primary study outcome, was much lower among regular statin users than among nonusers (7.5 percent, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 6.9–8.0 vs 12.7 percent, 95 percent CI, 12.4–12.9).

Further analysis showed that regular statin use was associated with a 42-percent decreased risk of developing PPDM compared with nonuse (hazard ratio [HR], 0.58, 95 percent CI, 0.52–0.65; p<0.001). Even irregular statin use conferred a 15-percent protection against the risk (HR, 0.85, 95 percent CI, 0.81–0.89; p<0.001).

The benefits were similar across low, moderate, and high statin doses.

Additional prospective studies with long-term follow-up are needed to establish the effect of statins on acute pancreatitis and prevention of PPDM.