Abstract
Objective: Whether statins prevent atrial fibrillation remains unclear. In particular, the data on the elderly are limited. Thus we investigated the association between statin use and the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) in community-dwelling older people in Shanghai ,China.
Methods: This registry-based cohort study was conducted in one community in Shanghai. Participants without history of AF were enrolled in this study, then new-onset of AF was recorded and evaluated in the followed three years. Poisson generalized linear models were conducted to examine the association between statin therapy and the incidence of AF. All analysis were performed with both conventional adjustment and propensity score matching methods. Univariate and multivariate regression analysis were performed to evaluate the risk factor of AF in community-dwelling older people
Results: In the cohort of 5675 participants (43.5% men; median age, 68.0 years), 456 (8.0%) were treated with stains. Two propensity score-matched cohorts of 453 participants (with or without statin treatment) were analyzed, in respectively. Statin use did not reduce the proportion of atrial fibrillation incidence, with hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of 0.982(0.948 to 1.018) (p＞0.05) in the unmatched cohort and 0.833 (0.459 to 1.512) (p＞0.05) in the matched cohort. The result of multivariate regression analysis showed that age, systolic blood pressure (SBP), BMI, Serum creatinine (Scr), total cholesterol (TC),were the independent risk factors of the new onset of AF.
Conclusion: Older age, SBP, BMI, Scr, TC, were independent predictors of AF onset. However, statin use was not associated with a decreased risk of atrial fibrillation incidence of AF in the elderly.