More islanders could soon be prescribed statins

The current advice from NICE is for statins, which lower so-called bad cholesterol in the blood, to be prescribed to people with a 10% risk of cardiovascular illnesses such as heart disease and stroke over 10 years, with the risk based on an assessment of age, blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

NICE has now published draft guidance stating that after new evidence on the side effects and safety of the drug, statins could be given to people who have never had a cardiovascular disease – known as CVD – and had a lower than 10% risk over 10 years.

This should be a part of shared decision-making between the patient and the doctor.

‘Although statins can sometimes cause side effects such as muscle pains, the best evidence shows that most people don’t get muscle pains with statins, and many more people will get muscle pains whether they take statins or not than have muscle pain caused by statins,’ said NICE.

The draft guidance said that other steps to lower risk factors should continue to be recommended, such as stopping smoking, exercise, eating a health diet and reducing alcohol consumption.

A Health & Social Care spokeswoman said that NICE estimated that under the new recommendation, for every 1,000 people with a CVD risk of 5% over 10 years who take a statin, about 20 will not get heart disease or have a stroke because they take the drug.

‘Higher-risk patients derive more benefit, so for 40 people with a risk of 10%, and for people with a risk of 20%, around 70 would not get heart disease or have a stroke in the next 10 years.’

HSC said that more than 9,000 islanders are taking statins, although it was not possible to say how many had a CVD risk of below 10% over 10 years.

But increasing the use of statins in the Bailiwick should see similar benefits to the UK, so for every 1,000 islanders with a risk of 5% who are given statins, HSC would expect 20 fewer to get heart disease or have a stroke over a 10-year period.

‘These are important new guidelines highlighting potential benefits for patients at a reasonable cost,’ said the spokeswoman.

‘They will be followed by local doctors on the same basis as in England, so in the context of shared decision-making and after lifestyle improvements have been made.’