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This article raised a couple of points for me.
I find it very surprising that 1 in 6 initiations were in patients with Qrisk<10% without familial hypercholesterolaemia, as I cannot remember the last time I offered a statin to such a patient. Perhaps this is worthy of further study given the low numbers of those over 20% risk who start statins (in our practice, where lipids or a risk score has been done, that would mainly be through their own choice, having been shown information such as the excellent 'smiley face' diagrams from Chris Cates nntonline1 site and given standard information from patient.co.uk).
Secondly, patients with CKD and type 1 diabetes were excluded. What about patients with established vascular disease? Those patients who have CHD, TIA etc are the ones most likely to be started on statins (and also have the most to gain). Are the authors confident that these patients were not counted in the group started on statins without a Qrisk?
Reference
1. Dr Chris Cates' EBM Website. www.nntonline.net.
Competing Interests: None declared.