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Research by the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) and Pere Virgili Institut (IISPV) led by Lluís Masana revealed that patients who are on statins have a 22-25 per cent lower risk of dying from the novel coronavirus.
Statins are a class of drugs prescribed by doctors to help lower cholesterol levels in the blood.
The research results have been published in the European Heart Journal - Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy.
For the study, the researchers gathered data from 2,159 patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 from 19 hospitals in Catalonia between March to May.
The researcher then estimated 100 clinical variables per patient such as age, sex, previous illnesses, cholesterol levels, the evolution of the virus, and treatments used for Covid-19, among others.
Also read: Covid 19: Cholesterol drug can ensure prevention, speedy recovery, says study
The researchers also compared the prevalence of death rates among patients on statins and the effect of withdrawing statins when the patients were hospitalised.
“In our comparison, we adjusted the groups so that they were comparable in terms of age, sex, and the existence of earlier illnesses,” explained Lluís Masana, a member of the CIBERDEM Network bringing together research groups working on diabetes and metabolism in Spain.
Findings
The findings noted that the percentage of patients who died in the group not treated with statins was 25.4 per cent, whereas the death rate was 19.8 per cent for those who had taken statins. This is 22 per cent lower than the patients who did not take statins.
“The data indicate that treatment with statins prevents one in five deaths,” Masana said.
Also read: Osteoporosis treatment can also have protective effect against Covid-19: Study
Furthermore, if treatment with this medicine continued during hospitalisation, mortality declined by up to 25 per cent, thus preventing one in four deaths.
Masana said in a statement: “Not only do these findings demonstrate that treatment with statins have no negative (effects) on the evolution of Covid-19, but they also show that it significantly reduces patient mortality.”
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