Background:
It has been suggested that taking statins may increase the risk of a fall due to myopathy. However, studies have reported contradictory evidence regarding the association between statin use and fall risk. The purpose of this study was to determine whether taking statins increases the risk of falls in patients undergoing a coronary angiography.
Methods:
The study population was a subset subjects from the Intermountain Heart Collaborative Study (n=1011). A subject was considered as taking statins if they were discharged with statins and had record of a filled statin prescription (n=810); they were considered as not taking statins if they had no prior statin use, were not discharged with statins, and had no record of a filled statin prescription (n=203). Electronic medical records were queried to determined medically treated falls (ICD-9: E8850-E8869; E888x) within 5 years of their angiography. Univariate association testing between falls and cardiovascular medications, co-morbidities, and demographic factors were done. Multivariate Cox regression analysis was used to test the association between statin use and fall risk while adjusting for the other factors found to be associated with fall risk in the univariate analyses.
Results:
Of the 1011 subjects, 112 (11%) had at least one medically-treated fall within 5 years. In the univariate analyses, statin use (p=0.024), age (p<0.001), sex (p=0.001), hypertension (p=0.040), diabetes (p<0.001), history of atrial fibrillation (AF) (p<0.001), and coumadin use (p=0.009) were associated with falls. Even after adjustment by other risk factors, statin use was associated with a decrease risk of a fall (HR=0.62; 0.40, 0.94). The factors conferring the most risk of a fall were diabetes, AF, and age (Table 1).
Conclusions:
Statin use was associated with a 1.6-fold decreased risk for a medically-treated fall. This suggests that clinicians may not need to caution patients taking statins regarding an increase risk of falls.