Increased Dose and Duration of Statin Use Is Associated with Decreased Asthma-Related Emergency Department Visits and Hospitalizations

Abstract

Background: Statins have pleiotropic anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects, yet the effect of statin use on asthma-related emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations has remained unclear, especially in Asian populations.

Objective: We sought to examine the effect of statin therapy on asthma-related ED visits and/or hospitalizations.

Methods: A cohort study was conducted using data from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database from 2001 to 2013. A total of 117,595 adult patients with asthma were included. The outcomes were defined as asthma-related ED visits and/or hospitalizations. Multiple Cox proportional hazards models were applied to determine the effect of statin use on asthma-related ED visits and/or hospitalizations.

Results: There were 3,417 asthma-related ED visits and/or hospitalizations among 117,595 subjects with asthma. Statin users were significantly less likely to experience asthma-related ED visits and/or hospitalizations (adjusted hazard ratio: 0.81; 95% confidence interval: 0.74-0.89) compared with nonstatin users. The risks of asthma-related ED visits and/or hospitalizations were decreased among those with a higher cumulative defined daily dose (DDD), greater average DDD, and longer cumulative-day users than the counterparts.

Conclusions: Our study suggests that statin use is associated with the decreased risk of asthma-related ED visits and/or hospitalizations in patients with asthma. A dose-response effect of statin use is also observed in this study. Therefore, future randomized clinical trials would be warranted to further evaluate the association.

Keywords: Adulthood asthma; Asthma exacerbation; Statin.