Statin use trajectories postbariatric surgery: a matched cohort analysis

Background

Metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS) is the most durable treatment of obesity and can reduce statin use.

Objective

We compare statin use trajectories in patients with and without MBS.

Methods

Adults with a body mass index ≥ 35kg/m² were identified using a U.S. employer-based retrospective claims database. Individuals who had MBS were matched 1:1 with those who did not. Trajectories of statin use were stratified by statin use in the year before the index date and examined in the 2 years after the index date.

Setting

University Hospital.

Results

Sixteen thousand three hundred fifty-nine adults who had MBS and 16,359 matched adults who did not were analyzed. In both groups, 19.4% filled a statin prescription in the year before the index date. In the 2 years after the index date, individuals using statins remained similar at 20% (year 1) and 19% (year 2) among those who didn’t have an MBS and decreased to 12.5% (year 1) and 9.3% (year 2) in the MBS cohort. Among baseline statin users, 35.4% of non-MBS and 60.4% of the MBS cohort stopped using statins within 2 years of the index date. Among statin naïve individuals at baseline, 9.6% of the non-MBS cohort started using statins within 2 years of the index date, compared to 2.6% of those who had MBS.

Conclusions

MBS results in a significant discontinuation of statins among baseline users, and significantly decreased the initiation of medications among individuals who were statin naive at baseline. This demonstrates that MBS is both a treatment and preventative measure for dyslipidemia.