| Title: | Impact of preventive treatment on healthcare use: a modelling study of statin treatment |
| Journal: | Value in Health |
| Published: | 14 Jul 2026 |
| Pubmed: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42447988/ |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jval.2026.06.016 |
| URL: | https://www.valueinhealthjournal.com/article/S1098-3015(26)02536-2/pdf |
Publication 20278
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Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Statin treatment's efficacy, safety and cost-effectiveness are well accepted. We assessed statin treatment effects on primary and hospital inpatient care use.</p>
METHODS: The UK Biobank population cohort with linked hospital admissions (N=501,807) and primary healthcare data (N=192,983) was used to estimate models of hospital admissions, hospital bed-days, primary care services (consultations, diagnostic and monitoring tests, and medication prescription items) associated with individual characteristics and occurrences of major vascular event (MVE, myocardial infarction, stroke, coronary revascularization, or vascular death), diabetes, cancer and non-vascular death. These models were integrated into a validated cardiovascular disease (CVD) microsimulation model to simulate lifetime healthcare use without and with statin treatment in population categories by age (40-60 and 60-70 years) and prior CVD.</p>
RESULTS: Over lifetime, statin treatment reduced MVE [7.5% (6.6%-8.5%) to 11.5% (10.2%-12.8%)], increased life years [0.64 (0.46-0.81) to 0.94 (0.70-1.17)], and reduced per person-year rates of hospital bed-days [-0.016 (-0.030, -0.002) to -0.115 (-0.150, -0.081)] and medication prescription items [-0.002 (-0.196, 0.191) to -0.927 (-1.252, -0.602)]. Per person on statin treatment, cumulative use of each included healthcare service decreased in earlier years after statin initiation, though the reductions diminishing over time and transitioned into higher long-term use. Larger reductions and earlier transitions to increased net cumulative use were observed in older people and/or those with prior CVD.</p>
CONCLUSIONS: Statin treatment reduces primary and hospital inpatient care by reducing CVD events, but over time the increased longevity with statin treatment is associated with additional healthcare use leading to greater long-term cumulative healthcare use.</p>
6 Authors
- Junwen Zhou
- Runguo Wu
- Claire Williams
- Chris Carvalho
- John Robson
- Borislava Mihaylova
Enabling scientific discoveries that improve human health