The Relationship Between Long-term Use Of Statins And The Prevalence Of New-onset Diabetes Mellitus: A Meta-analysis

Objective: Results of large scale clinical trials about statins'effects on the prevalence of new-onset diabetes mellitus (DM) are conflictive. We perform this meta-analysis to assess whether the long-term use of statins affects the prevalence of new-onset diabetes mellitus.Methods: We searched electronic databases including Pubmed, EMCC, HighWire, OVID and CNKI from 1987 to September 2009, and the references of eligible studies were manually searched. Eligible studies included randomized placebo-controlled clinical trials, patients were non-DM subjects or the number of non-DM patients can be calculated, with follow-up of 1 year or longer, the Prevalence of new-onset DM was reported. Two researchers collected the data independently. Methodological qualities of trials were assessed in terms of the generation of allocation sequence, blinding, and drop-outs. Before meta-analysis, the studies were evaluated for publication bias and heterogeneity. Relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated using fixed effects models or random effects models. Statistical analysis was performed by using Review Manager 5.0.Results: Four randomized placebo-controlled clinical trials of statins involving 46122 subjects were included in the meta-analysis. The result of meta-analysis indicated that there was no significant difference in the prevalence of new-onset DM between the statins and placebo groups (RR =1.07, 95% CI = 0.89-1.30, Z = 0.750, P = 0.450). However, after the trial with large heterogeneity was excluded from analysis, the result indicated that treatment with statins increased the risk of the prevalence of new-onset DM (RR =1.18, 95% CI = 1.06-1.31, Z = 3.150, P = 0.002).Conclusion: The long-term use of statins doesn't affect the prevalence of new-onset diabetes mellitus in persons without DM.