ArticleBritish journal of clinical pharmacology2005
Trends in prescribing and utilization of statins and other lipid lowering drugs across Europe 1997-2003.
Article in British journal of clinical pharmacology, 2005. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 69 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
69 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 183 citations in OpenAlex.
- Usual blood pressure, peripheral arterial disease, and vascular risk: cohort study of 4.2 million adults.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2015Pooled it
- Effectiveness of an intervention designed to optimize statins use: a primary prevention randomized clinical trial.BMC family practice · 2014Trial
- Metabolic traits in obesity and normal BMI in industrialised countries: a multi-country analysis of national population-based studies.Lancet (London, England) · 2026Article
- Cost-effectiveness of statins, berberine, and combination for primary cardiovascular disease prevention in Scotland.NPJ cardiovascular health · 2026Article
- Investigating the controversy surrounding statin therapy and Achilles tendinopathy using Mendelian randomization analysis.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2025Article
- Global, regional and national burden of ischemic stroke attributed to high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, 1990-2019：A decomposition analysis and age-period-cohort analysis.Journal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism : official journal of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism · 2024Article
- Chronic lead exposure and burden of cardiovascular disease during 1990-2019: a systematic analysis of the global burden of disease study.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2024Article
- Clinical competence, communication ability and adherence to choosing wisely recommendations for lipid reducing drug use in older adults.BMC geriatrics · 2023Article
- Associations between education level, blood-lipid measurements and statin treatment in a Danish primary health care population from 2000 to 2018.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2023Article
- The Impact of Drugs on Hydrogen Sulfide Homeostasis in Mammals.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Trends in the use of oral anticoagulants, antiplatelets and statins in four European countries: a population-based study.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2022Article
- Global Burden Attributable to High Low-Density Lipoprotein-Cholesterol From 1990 to 2019.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2022Article
- Decreased plasma lipid levels in a statin-free Danish primary health care cohort between 2001 and 2018.Lipids in health and disease · 2021Article
- Validation of LC-MS/MS method for determination of rosuvastatin concentration in human blood collected by volumetric absorptive microsampling (VAMS).Translational and clinical pharmacology · 2021Article
- Article
- National trends in total cholesterol obscure heterogeneous changes in HDL and non-HDL cholesterol and total-to-HDL cholesterol ratio: a pooled analysis of 458 population-based studies in Asian and Western countries.International journal of epidemiology · 2020Article
- Statins for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease: modelling guidelines and patient preferences based on an Irish cohort.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2019Article
- Statins for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease: an overview of systematic reviews.BMJ open · 2019Review
- Patterns of statin utilisation for new users and market dynamics in South Korea: a 13-year retrospective cohort study.BMJ open · 2019Article
- Despite Affordability, Low Utilization of Lipid Lowering Drugs in Iran: Trend Analysis and Benchmarking 2005-2016.Iranian journal of pharmaceutical research : IJPR · 2019Article
9 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimsTo describe trends in utilization and prescribing of statins and other lipid lowering drugs across Europe from data in routine administrative databases.
methodsObservational study in EU member states and Norway. Comparison of annual utilization data for lipid lowering agents by class and drug from national administrative databases for reimbursement over the period 1997-2003, measured in DDDs per 1000 inhabitants/day. Prescribed daily doses (PDD) of statins obtained from a commercial database (IMS Health) for 2000 and 2003, and used to calculate numbers of "patient treatment days" (PTD) in each country in each year. Analysis of PTD to explain increased utilization of statins.
resultsUse of lipid lowering agents varied among countries (in 2003, highest in Ireland and Norway, and lowest in Italy), but increased in all countries studied (between 2000 and 2003 by 274% in Ireland and by 56% in France). This increase was entirely due to increases in statin use. Prescribed daily doses of statins increased in all countries for which data was available between 2000 and 2003, but still usually fell below the doses used in the major trials of statins. As a result, the numbers of PTDs increased to a lesser extent than suggested by utilization (e.g. by 192% in Ireland and by 35% in France). One-third of the total rise in utilization was explained by increased PDD, and two-thirds by an increase in numbers of PTDs. Statins dominated the markets in all countries, although fibrates remained strong in France and Belgium (approximately 25% of all lipid lowering agents) and to a lesser extent Germany (10%).
conclusionsUse of statins across Europe has increased hugely over the study period. Some of the increase in use is due to higher prescribed daily doses, but two-thirds is due to increases in numbers of patient days of treatment, either due to more patients treated or less likely to better compliance.
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Registered trials
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