Statins for Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease in Adults

Cardiovascular disease (CVD), the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in the United States, may be potentially preventable with statin therapy.

To systematically review benefits and harms of statins for prevention of CVD to inform the US Preventive Services Task Force. Data Sources: Ovid MEDLINE (from 1946), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (from 1991), and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (from 2005) to June 2016. Study Selection: Randomized clinical trials of statins vs placebo, fixed-dose vs titrated statins, and higher- vs lower-intensity statins in adults without prior cardiovascular events. Data Extraction and Synthesis: One investigator abstracted data, a second checked data for accuracy, and 2 investigators independently assessed study quality using predefined criteria. Data were pooled using random-effects meta-analysis. Main Outcomes and Measures: All-cause mortality, CVD-related morbidity or mortality, and harms.