Statin use increased new-onset diabetes in hypercholesterolemic individuals: Data from the Korean National Health Insurance Service-National Health Screening Cohort database (NHIS-HEALS)

Aim: We investigated the association between statin use and new-onset diabetes (NODM) in Korean adults with hypercholesterolemia. Methods: This study performed based on data from the National Health Insurance Service-National Health Screening Cohort for the years from 2002 to 2015. Statin users classified as high- or low- users according to medication possession ratio. Statin non-users consisted of hypercholesterolemic participants who never used statin over the entire follow-up period. 21,469 participants (10,880 statin users, 10,589 statin non-users) with a median follow-up period of 12.5 years were included. We estimated the NODM risk based on the survival analyses. In particular, to adjust for confounding effects, we considered Cox proportional hazards regression models over three stages. Results: Compared to non-users, statin users had a significantly higher risk for NODM. The fully adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) (95% confidential intervals [95% CIs]) of statin users for NODM were 1.43 (1.31–1.57) in men, and 1.86 (1.66–2.10) in women, respectively after adjusted confounding factors including age and lifestyle factors. Compared to high-users, aHRs (95% CIs) of low-users for NODM were 1.16 (1.03–1.30) and 1.28 (1.16–1.43) in men and women, respectively. Conclusions: In hypercholesterolemic patients, statin users have a higher risk of NODM than non-users.