Daily Dose: Statin-Eligible Minority Patients Sorely Undertreated

Patient Care brings primary care clinicians a lot of medical news every day—it’s easy to miss an important study. The Daily Dose provides a concise summary of one of the website's leading stories you may not have seen.

On March 23, 2023, we reported on a study published in JAMA Cardiology that evaluated the prevalence of statin use for primary prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) by race and ethnicity.

The study

Researchers pooled participant data for 3 NHANES cycles between 2013 and 2020, representing nearly 40 million US adults. The team calculated 10-year predicted ASCVD risk for participants using the pooled cohort equation (PCE) and divided risk into quartiles, from 5% to <7.5% up ≥20%.

The final cohort numbered 3417 participants with a median age of 61.8 years; race and ethnicity were by self-report and weighted percentages were: Asian, 4.2%, Black, 12.7%, Hispanic, 10.1%, and White 73.0%.

The results

Among participants with a guideline indication for statin therapy, treatment was substantially lower for Black and Hispanic participants compared with White participants in the overall cohort (20.0% vs 27.9%, P<.001, and 15.4% vs 27.9%, P<.001, respectively) as well as across ASCVD strata.

Statin use in the highest risk strata (≥20%) was low overall and was significantly lower among Black participants (23.8; prevalence ratio [PR], 0.90; 95% [CI, 0.82 - 0.98) and Hispanic participants (23.9%; PR, 0.90; 95% CI, 0.81 - 0.99) compared with White participants (37.6%; reference group).

Note from authors

The findings “demonstrate the persistent racial and ethnic disparities in guideline-recommended statin use among at-risk adults and represent an opportunity to advance pharmacoequity in primary prevention.”

Click here for full study details.