title: Do statins really cause diabetes? A meta-analysis of major randomized controlled clinical trials.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate and establish the relationship between the use of statin therapy and the risk of development of diabetes.
  
  
  METHODS
  PubMed and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials was searched for randomized controlled end-point trials of statins, with more than 1000 subjects and a minimum of one-year follow-up period, published until August 2015. The odds ratio (OR) of diabetes incidence with overall statin therapy as well as with different statins in question was calculated through random effect meta-analysis model.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Fourteen studies were included in the analysis with a total of 94,943 participants. Of these, 2392 subjects developed incident diabetes in the statin and 2167 in the placebo groups during a 4-year follow-up. The OR of diabetes incidence with statin therapy was significantly higher as compared with the placebo group (OR=1.11; 95% confidence interval = 1.0 to 1.2; p=0.007). There was an insignificant level of heterogeneity between the included trials (Cochran Q= 19.463, p=0.109, I2=33.20). Subgroup analysis showed that only 2 statins namely, atorvastatin (OR= 1.29; p=0.042) and rosuvastatin (OR = 1.17; p=0.01) were significantly associated.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Statin therapy can slightly increase risk of incident diabetes in subjects with hypercholesterolemia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Beirut Arab University, Beirut, Lebanon. E-mail. alolita_rahal_470@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Alaa J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Rahal
authors.forename: Ahmed I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: ElMallah
authors.forename: Rita J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Poushuju
authors.forename: Rana
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Itani
mesh_terms: D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000139:chemically induced*; D006801:Humans; D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors / Q000009:adverse effects*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
chemical_list: D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors