More than half of adults prescribed statins will discontinue treatment within the first five years of therapy, with many failing to reinitiate, an Australian study shows.

The findings, based on real-world data, highlight the challenges associated with adherence to long-term statin preventive therapy, the researchers say.

They found that, among patients who did restart treatment, switching statin type or uptitrating was associated with a lower risk of further discontinuation compared with patients restarted on the same regimen.

Using a random 10% sample of PBS claims data, the team analysed patterns of switching, adherence and persistence among 141,000 adults (mean age 60) with newly dispensed statins from 2015 to 2019, three-quarters of which were initiated by GPs.