Major trauma in elderly adults receiving lipid-lowering medications

Background — Some clinical trials, laboratory experiments, and in vitro studies suggest that lipid-lowering medications predispose a person to traumatic injury.

Methods — We used population-based administrative database analysis to study adults age 65 years or more over a 5-year interval (n = 1,348,259).

Results — About 12% of the cohort received a prescription for a lipid-lowering medication and about 88% did not. The two groups had similar distributions of age, gender, and income. Overall, 2,557 (0.2%) were hospitalized for major trauma. Those who received a lipid-lowering medication were 39% less likely to sustain a major trauma than those who did not receive such medication (95% confidence interval, 29 to 47). Similar results were observed after adjustment for age, gender, and income; cardiac and neurologic medications; and lethality. No other cardiac or neurologic medication was associated with an apparent safety advantage.

Conclusion — Lipid-lowering medications do not lead to a clinically important increase in the absolute risk of major trauma for elderly patients in the community.