An estimated 21.5 million additional adults in the United States may now be eligible for statins under updated cholesterol treatment guidelines, according to a new study. The researchers aimed to estimate how many adults in the US would be considered eligible for statin therapy under the new 2026 blood cholesterol guidelines issued by the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology, and nine partnering medical societies, compared with the previous 2018 guidelines.
What Do the New Guidelines Mean?
The analysis, published July 20 in the journal JAMA, found that the changes could bring the total number of Americans eligible for statins, medications that lower cholesterol, to about 87.5 million people, or more than half of adults ages 30 to 79. The updated guidelines place greater emphasis on long-term cardiovascular risk and give greater weight to certain medical conditions, such as advanced chronic kidney disease or HIV.
According to Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and clinical associate professor at George Washington University, the new guidelines mean that more people may be eligible for statin therapy, especially those with a high risk of cardiovascular disease. However, being eligible does not necessarily mean that someone should immediately begin taking medication. The decision should be individualized and based on factors including age, smoking status, family history, medical conditions, and tolerance for taking a daily medication.
What Should Patients Do?
Patients who are concerned about their cholesterol levels and cardiovascular risk should talk to their healthcare providers about the new guidelines and what they mean for their individual situation. The first step is to know your numbers, including your total cholesterol, LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, HDL (“good”) cholesterol, and triglycerides, as well as other factors in your medical history. Clinicians can enter this information into the American Heart Association’s PREVENT calculator, which estimates the chance of developing cardiovascular disease over 10 years and, for many younger adults, over 30 years.
Original reporting: KEYT (Ventura/Santa Barbara) — read the source article.
