Statins reduce mortality in patients with COVID-19: an updated meta-analysis of 147 824 patients

Carlos Diaz-Arocutipa, Beatriz Melgar-Talavera, Ángel Alvarado-Yarasca, María M. Saravia-Bartra, Pedro Cazorla, Iván Belzusarri, Adrian V. Hernandez

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

36 Scopus citations

Abstract

Objectives: There is conflicting evidence about the efficacy of statin use in regard to clinical outcomes in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). A systematic review and meta-analysis was performed to examine the effect of statin use on mortality in COVID-19 patients. Methods: The electronic databases were searched, from inception to March 3, 2021. Unadjusted and adjusted effect estimates with their 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were pooled using random-effects models. Results: Twenty-five cohort studies involving 147 824 patients were included. The mean age of the patients ranged from 44.9 to 70.9 years; 57% of patients were male and 43% were female. The use of statins was not associated with mortality when applying the unadjusted risk ratio (uRR 1.16, 95% CI 0.86–1.57; 19 studies). In contrast, meta-analyses of the adjusted odds ratio (aOR 0.67, 95% CI 0.52–0.86; 11 studies) and adjusted hazard ratio (aHR 0.73, 95% CI 0.58–0.91; 10 studies) showed that statins were independently associated with a significant reduction in mortality. Subgroup analyses showed that only chronic use of statins significantly reduced mortality according to the adjusted models. Conclusions: The use of statins was found to be associated with a lower risk of mortality in COVID-19 patients based on adjusted effects of cohort studies. However, randomized controlled trials are still needed to confirm these findings.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)374-381
Number of pages8
JournalInternational Journal of Infectious Diseases
Volume110
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2021
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Funding: None. Ethical approval: Not applicable. Informed consent: Not applicable. Data availability: Data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Conflict of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest. Carlos Diaz-Arocutipa: participated in database search, study review, data analysis, and manuscript preparation. Beatriz Melgar-Talavera: participated in database search, study review, and manuscript preparation. Ángel Alvarado-Yarasca: participated in database search, study review, and manuscript preparation. María M. Saravia-Bartra: participated in database search, study review, and manuscript preparation. Pedro Cazorla: participated in database search, study review, and manuscript preparation. Iván Belzusarri: participated in database search, study review, and manuscript preparation. Adrian V. Hernandez: participated in study review and manuscript preparation.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors

Keywords

  • COVID-19
  • Mortality
  • Statins
  • Systematic review

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