title: Brief Report: Association Between Statin Use and Cardiovascular Mortality at the Population Level: An Ecologic Study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  We assessed the contribution of statin use to the decline in cardiovascular mortality for The Netherlands over the period 1994-2010.
  
  
  METHODS
  We combined aggregated mortality data from Statistics Netherlands with dispensing data from a representative drug dispensing database. We estimated mortality as if prevalence of statin use had remained at its observed 1994 levels throughout the period 1994-2010 for acute myocardial infarction, other ischemic heart disease, and cerebrovascular disease using Poisson models adjusted for various confounders.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We estimated that keeping prevalence of statin use at observed 1994 levels would have resulted in 6.3 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 4.9, 7.8), 1.6 (95% CI = 0.8, 2.6), and 3.4 (95% CI = 2.2, 4.6) more acute myocardial infarction, ischemic heart disease, and cerebrovascular deaths per 10,000 person-years, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings indicate that statin therapy was associated with decreasing national cardiovascular mortality rates in the period 1994 to 2010.
authors: From the aDepartment of Pharmacy, Unit PharmacoEpidemiology & Pharmaco Economics (PE2), University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands; bFaculty of Spatial Sciences, Population Research Centre (PRC), University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands; cNetherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, The Hague, The Netherlands; dDepartment of Vascular Medicine, University of Groningen, University Medical Centre Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands; and eDepartment of Applied Mathematics, Computer Science and Statistics, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
authors: Maarten J
authors: MJ
authors: Bijlsma
authors: Fanny
authors: F
authors: Janssen
authors: Jens
authors: J
authors: Bos
authors: Pieter W
authors: PW
authors: Kamphuisen
authors: Stijn
authors: S
authors: Vansteelandt
authors: Eelko
authors: E
authors: Hak
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000401:mortality; D002561:Cerebrovascular Disorders / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000401:mortality*; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000401:mortality; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D065840:Protective Factors
chemical_list: D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors