Most people over 70 should consider taking statins, study finds

[helvella]

I want to emphasise right at the start, "The authors cautioned that this was an observational study, and as such, could not establish cause and effect."

I suspect that there will have been a degree of self-selection out of the study - e.g. those who have ever had an adverse reaction to a statin.

Most people over 70 should consider taking statins, study finds

Researchers say cost-effective treatment that cuts heart disease and stroke risk is linked to better health in older age

...

They found that taking statins significantly increased quality-adjusted life years, especially at higher intensity doses. Quality-adjusted life years is a measure used by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence to assess whether a treatment is worth providing on the NHS. According to Nice, the threshold for good value treatment is less than £20,000 for each quality-adjusted life year gained.

...

theguardian.com/society/art...

Link to paper discussed:

Lifetime effects and cost-effectiveness of standard and higher-intensity statin therapy across population categories in the UK: a microsimulation modelling study.

Summary:

ndph.ox.ac.uk/publications/...

Full paper:

thelancet.com/journals/lane...

The ONLY reference to thyroid I could find was this in the full paper:

Statin initiation and monitoring healthcare costs

In year of initiation (doctor and nurse consultations; tests of blood lipids, HbA1c, thyroid function) £54.65

Which seems odd. As I couldn't see where they said anything about what they did with the results of the thyroid function test.

Link to lead author of paper:

Borislava Mihaylova MSc, DPhil Associate Professor

ndph.ox.ac.uk/team/boby-mih...

And I want to ask, has anyone here ever had a formal QALY assessment with respect to thyroid treatment? Especially liothyronine.

Has anyone ever done a self-assessment of the QALY value of their thyroid treatment?

Has anyone thought their thyroid treatment could ever cost as much as £20,000 per QALY?

For reference, from NICE:

Quality-adjusted life year

A measure of the state of health of a person or group in which the benefits, in terms of length of life, are adjusted to reflect the quality of life. One quality-adjusted life year (QALY) is equal to 1 year of life in perfect health.

QALYs are calculated by estimating the years of life remaining for a patient following a particular treatment or intervention and weighting each year with a quality-of-life score (on a 0 to 1 scale). It is often measured in terms of the person’s ability to carry out the activities of daily life, and freedom from pain and mental disturbance.

nice.org.uk/glossary?letter=q

[humanbean]

I could be misremembering but I'm sure when my late mother was put on statins in the early 2000s that the Patient Information Leaflet said that they shouldn't be prescribed to people over 70, or that there was no evidence of a benefit for people over 70, something like that anyway. But my mother took them anyway because she was one of those people who always did exactly what the doctor told her to do, and never, ever questioned it.

Before my mother started taking statins she wasn't diabetic, but a few months after she started taking statins she was discovered to be diabetic. I can't help but think the two things are connected, since developing diabetes is a known side effect of taking statins.

[helvella Administrator in reply to humanbean]

My mother was put on statins at way over 70 and, what I think was worse, clopidogrel. She deteriorated (in my view) but improved a bit when she stopped clopidogrel.

[Sparklingsunshine in reply to humanbean]

As I'm not bothered about reaching a ripe old age ( having seen several ancient family members declare how they wished they could just die) then I'll pass. Not everyone is obsessed about living forever. Statins can take a hike.

[Zephyrbear in reply to humanbean]

My husband developed T2 diabetes as a direct result of statins (Simvastatin) amongst other things like terrible muscle weakness etc. As soon as he stopped taking them the muscles recovered and his diabetes is now under control through diet alone (he has been prescribed Metformin but stopped that too) and no longer relevant.

[mrskiki in reply to Zephyrbear]

My mum noticed my dad was hardly able to walk, and was breathless on inclines, statins swapped out a few times. He had trouble sleeping for years. He asked to stop taking them as his cholesterol was ok ish before but gp said they went alongside the BP tablets.I was visiting and he forgot to take the statins, guess what. Wonder what damage all those sleepless nights did.

[greygoose]

Yeah, right. Over my dead body!

[Margo in reply to greygoose]

Well said Greygoose.

[greygoose in reply to Margo]

Thank you.

[Margo in reply to greygoose]

je vous en prie.

[greygoose in reply to Margo]

[serenfach]

Conversation with GP went something like this:-

GP -I think you may benefit from statins..

Me - I am over 70

GP - oh yes

Me - and female

GP - oh yes

Me - with thyroid problems

GP - oh yes

Me - and only one dodgy kidney

GP - um, I think we will forget about the statins...

Thank goodness I knew a bit about statins. Shame the GP did not engage brain!

[Vvap]

My quality of life is already poor. On T4 only now, stopped self medicating with T3 earlier this year due to heart palpitations. I refused statins about 15 years ago because of known muscle effects. I’m about to refuse it again - prescribed by renal specialist who knows I have Hypothyroidism. Interesting what you said about your mother and clopidogrel- I read the patient leaflet and decided it’s not for me!

[helvella Administrator in reply to Vvap]

The biggest problem was her being left on it. It might have been OK, even helpful, for a few weeks.

[mrskiki]

20k would be nice, but at the moment even the very little time and money that is spent on us at our brief 10 min telephone calls, often by complete stranger who isn’t even given time to read our notes so we have to start again, is often wasted on blood tests that we have repeat in parallel, refusal to acknowledge our FT3 results etc or even our symptoms etc.

I refused statins but to be fair the GPs and paramedics have never pushed them, I now think she was a health assistant. probably just been in some statin sales, sorry training session where she got a free pen or mug or something.