Increase Statin Use, Lower Health Care Costs?

摘要

Heart disease is thernleading killer of Americans, and yet it is preventable, say experts. Which is why researchers decided to find out whether helping more healthy people avoid the disease-by prescribing cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins more widely-could save not only lives but health care dollars as well. Current national guidelines suggest that only those at high risk of developing heart disease-defined as having a greater than 20% chance of experiencing a heart event in the next 10 years-should take a statin. But the new study has found that if the threshold for statin eligibility were lowered to include people with even 15% risk, overall costs for treating problems such as heart attack and chest pain would drop.