Statin use is associated with lower risk of new onset dementia in patients with heart failure

Abstract Background Increasing number of heart failure (HF) patients diagnosed with dementia due to improved treatment and aging population. Data relating to the association of statin use on the risk of dementia incidence among patients with HF are sparse. Methods Using a previously validated territory-wide clinical information registry, statin use was ascertained among all eligible patients with HF (N=241,995) from 1996 to 2019. Propensity score matching was used to balance baseline covariates between statin nonusers (167,738 patients) with statin users (74,257 patients). Competing risk regression with Cox proportional-hazard models was performed to estimate the risk of incident dementia associated with statin use. Results Of all eligible subjects, the mean age was 76.5±13.0 years, 115,371 (47.7%) was male. Over a median follow-up of 2.7 years (interquartile range [IQR]: 0.6 to 6.7), 13,482 (5.6%) patients were diagnosed with dementia including Alzheimer's disease (N=5,253), senile dementia uncomplicated (N=4,273), arteriosclerotic dementia (N=3,262), and others (N=694). Statin use (vs. none) was associated with a 58% lower risk of dementia incidence (multivariable-adjusted sub-distribution hazard ratio [SHR]=0.42; 95% Confidence Interval [CI], 0.38 to 0.46) after accounting for death as a competing risk. Moreover, the male gender was associated with a 51% lower risk of dementia incidence (multivariable-adjusted SHR=0.59; 95% CI (0.54–0.65) compared with females. Conclusion Our study suggests that there is substantial sex difference in the incidence of dementia among HF patients. Moreover, statin use is associated with a significantly lower risk of incident dementia in HF. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding sources: None.