Discontinuing a statin in over-65s poses a significant risk for fatal and nonfatal cardiovascular events, Italian researchers say.

“Polypharmacy is a major health concern among older adults. While deprescribing may reduce inappropriate medicine use, its effect on clinical end points remains uncertain,” write Dr Annalisa Biffi of the University of Milano-Bicocca and colleagues.

The team followed more than 29,000 adults from Lombardy aged 65 and older receiving uninterrupted treatment with statins, antihypertensive, antidiabetic and antiplatelet agents between 2013 and 2015, and tracked them to mid-2018.

During the study period, about 5800 participants (20%) stopped taking statins but stayed on the other medications and some 4010 of them (mean age 76.5 years, 60% men) were propensity-score-matched with an individual who did not stop the statin, the authors report in JAMA Network Open.