Guidelines differ greatly on the use of statins to prevent cardiovascular disease by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) and the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association. A study conducted by Neha J. Pagidipati, MD and Michael Pencina, PhD analyzed six-year data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to add context to the differing guidelines.
"There's generally confusion on who should be getting statins, I don't think we have the perfect guideline yet. Even though younger people have a modest short-term risk of developing cardiovascular disease in 10 years, the risk escalates over 30 years. Half of all cardiovascular events in men and one-third in women occur before the age of 65 years, so reliance on 10-year risk could miss many younger people who could potentially benefit from long-term statin therapy.” said Pencina.
While the study did not estimate what the effects of either recommendation would be -- such as how many heart attacks or strokes would be prevented, or what the harms and costs would be, it certainly spurred debate and discussion and was widely covered in the news. Read the CNN coverage on this study here and the Reuters coverage here.