The costs of providing drugs to a wide range of people, even those with relatively low risk of heart attack or stroke, are outweighed by the savings made on treating such diseases, say researchers from the Health Economics Research Centre and the Clinical Trials Service Unit at Oxford.
Large trials have shown that lowering blood cholesterol levels with statins greatly reduces major vascular events, such as heart attacks and strokes, in people at high risk.
By far the largest such trial in the world, the heart protection study, was run by Clinical Trials Service Unit at Oxford University and involved 20,536 men and women with heart disease or diabetes. They were randomly allocated to receive either 40 mg simvastatin daily or a placebo for an average of five years. The study has shown that several years of statin treatment is cost-effective for a wide range of people with vascular disease or diabetes, with the cost of the drugs outweighed by the savings in treating disease.
Using data from the study, the researchers have now estimated the lifetime cost-effectiveness of 40 mg simvastatin daily for people in an even wider range of age and underlying vascular risk categories. The research team found that treatment with generic simvastatin would be cost saving for most of the age and risk categories included in the heart protection study. In other words, the reduced costs of hospital admissions as a result of fewer vascular events outweighed the increased costs of statin treatment in almost all of the categories studied.
Statin treatment was cost effective even in people as young as 35 and with an annual risk of a major vascular event as low as one per cent.
This is well below the risk threshold currently recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).
Those on the heart protection study were randomly allocated to receive either 40 mg simvastatin daily or a placebo for an average of five years.
These new analyses indicate that, at current generic prices, lifelong treatment with simvastatin is cost saving or very cost effective for many more people than previously thought. Statin therapy should therefore be considered routinely for people across a wider age range and at lower risk of vascular disease than is currently the case, researchers suggest.
Source: University of Oxford
Related stories:
Beta-blockers reduce mortality in patients with COPD after vascular surgery
In the first study to directly examine the effects of beta-blockers on surgical patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), researchers have found that, contrary to previous thought, beta-blockers significantly reduce mortality in COPD patients.
Isoflavone dietary supplement improves the functioning of the arteries in stroke patients
A dietary supplement containing isoflavone – a chemical found in soybeans, chickpeas, legumes and clovers – can improve artery function in stroke patients according to new research published online in Europe's leading cardiology journal, the
European Heart Journal today (Wednesday 24 September).
Dark chocolate: Half a bar per week to keep at bay the risk of heart attack
Maybe gourmands are not jumping for joy. Probably they would have preferred bigger amounts to sup-port their passion. Though the news is still good for them: 6.7 grams of chocolate per day represent the ideal amount for a protective effect against inflammation and subsequent cardiovascular disease.
People with type 2 diabetes can put fatty livers on a diet with moderate exercise
Weekly bouts of moderate aerobic exercise on a bike or treadmill, or a brisk walk, combined with some weightlifting, may cut down levels of fat in the liver by up to 40 percent in people with type 2 diabetes, a study by physical fitness experts at Johns Hopkins shows.
3-D MRI technique helps radiologists detect high-risk carotid disease
Canadian researchers have used three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging (3-D MRI) to accurately detect bleeding within the walls of diseased carotid arteries, a condition that may lead to a stroke. The results of the study published in the October issue of
Radiology suggest the technique may prove to be a useful screening tool for patients at high risk for stroke.
Human embryonic stem cell secretions minimized tissue injury after heart attack
A novel way to improve survival and recovery rate after a heart attack was reported in the journal
Stem Cell Research by scientists at Singapore's Institute of Medical Biology (IMB) and Bioprocessing Technology Institute (BTI) and The Netherlands' University Medical Center Utrecht.
At risk for peripheral arterial disease? Simple quiz provides key so you can circulate better
Ten million Americans have peripheral arterial disease (PAD), and research shows that the highest risk populations include African-Americans (twice as likely to develop clogged leg arteries), seniors (12-20 percent develop PAD) and diabetics (one in three who are over the age of 50 develop PAD). Legs for Life®—a community health and public information program—recommends that older Americans take its free, online self-assessment quiz.
Researchers devise means to create blood by identifying earliest stem cells
Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered the earliest form of human blood stem cells and deciphered the mechanism by which these embryonic stem cells replicate and grow. They also found a surprising biological marker that pinpoints these stem cells, which serve as the progenitors for red blood cells and lymphocytes.
