Statins, the commonly used drugs for reducing cholesterol, may be tied to a slightly lower risk of death due to COVID-19, suggest new data. 

A team of researchers at Karolinska Institute, Sweden, evaluated the medical records of around 1 million individuals in Stockholm, aged above 45 years, from March through November 2020. Around 18% of these had been prescribed a statin, such as atorvastatin and simvastatin. Individuals who had been prescribed statins had more risk factors for poor COVID-19 outcomes, including older age, more often male, more health conditions, lower education levels and less disposable income. 

Taking all this into account, statin users were found to have a 12% lesser likelihood of death from COVID-19 during the study period. However, the investigators did not compare the outcomes in people who actually got infected. Additionally, the researchers only had data on prescriptions, and not on whether patients took the medicine. Therefore, a clinical trial is needed to confirm the findings, but the authors of the study still conclude that the findings point to a modest preventive effect of statin treatment on COVID-19 mortality. The findings are published in PLOS Medicine… (Reuters, October 15, 2021)