Major trauma in elderly adults receiving lipid-lowering medications

Background: some clinical trials, laboratory experiments, and in vitro stud ies suggest that lipid-lowering medications predispose a person to traumati c injury. Methods: We used population-based administrative database analysis to study adults age 65 years or more over a 5-year interval (n = 1,348,259). Results: About 12% of the cohort received a prescription for a lipid-loweri ng medication and about 88% did not. The two groups had similar distributio ns of age, gender, and income. Overall, 2,557 (0.2%) were hospitalized for major trauma. Those who received a lipid-lowering medication were 39% less Likely to sustain a major trauma than those who did not receive such medica tion (95% confidence interval, 29 to 47). similar results were observed aft er adjustment for age, gender, and income; cardiac and neurologic medicatio ns; and lethality. No other cardiac or neurologic medication was associated with an apparent safety advantage. Conclusion: Lipid-lowering medications do not lead to a clinically importan t increase in the absolute risk of major trauma for elderly patients in the community.