Statins Use in Diabetes Patients as Primary Prevention and Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Levels

Abstract

Few data are available on the use of statins among the type 2 diabetes patients for primary prevention after publication of the American Diabetes Association guidelines in 2008. The American Diabetes Association (ADA) standards of care for diabetes state that statin therapy should be initiated in individuals with diabetes and other cardiovascular risk factors with a target LDL cholesterol of 100 mg/dl. This paper is to determine statin use in diabetes patients as primary prevention and its impact on low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) control among US individuals in year 2011-2012. In the research, diabetes patients were first identified among participants of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011-2012. Patients were excluded if they had any cardiovascular events including congestive heart failure, heart failure, and stroke before as statin usually recommend for secondary prevention among these patients. Statin use was obtained from review of participants' drug containers. LDL-C control (yes) were defined was defined as The conclusion comes out to be that statin use was associated with substantial improvements in LDL-C control in this study. Nevertheless, suboptimal statin use, especially among women and individuals with lower family income, prevented the maximal public health benefit from statin as a primary prevention among diabetes population.