Research News: Statins in the Elderly

Research News

12 Oct

A recent Australian study makes the worldwide headlines but did it really reveal ground breaking headlines or was it actually pushing a narrative for the pharmaceutical industry?

The Sydney Morning Herald story was published on August 29th, 2026, with the headline "This common medication cuts heart attack risk in older people" ¹.

In the UK, the Guardian published an article in their Australia news section called “Statins can safely cut risk of heart attacks or strokes in healthy people aged over 70, world-first clinical trial shows”².

US coverage appeared mainly in US-based medical and cardiology news sites rather than in mainstream media publications. The MedPage today headline was “Statins Handed a Victory in Healthy Older People in STAREE”³ .

The headlines were about a study, which was published in the New England Medical Journal. It was called “Atorvastatin, cardiovascular events, and disability-free survival in older adults” and it was by Zoungas et al [4].

The trial was assigned the shorthand name STAREE (STAtins in Reducing Events in the Elderly).

Here’s a closer look at the trial and what was actually uncovered:

The trial randomly assigned healthy men and women over the age of 70 (average age 75) to either a statin or placebo. It followed them for 5.9 years.

The two main outcomes of interest were

a composite of death from cardiovascular causes, nonfatal myocardial infarction or stroke, or coronary revascularization and
a composite of death from any cause, dementia, or persistent physical disability (a measure of disability-free survival).
The second outcome of interest is the most important.

The researchers reported that the event rate for outcome (1) was better in the statin group (10.9 vs 15.5 events per 1,000 person-years). There was no significant difference for women or the healthiest people for this outcome.
There was no (significant) difference between the event rates for outcome (2). A disappointed cardiologist concluded "taking the medication didn’t extend life or its quality."
Adverse events were higher in the statin group and many were serious.
Many of the participants, from both groups, discontinued their tablet for various reasons. To quantify this – 48% of those in the statin group and 57% of those in the placebo group had discontinued their original regimen within the 5.9 year follow-up period.
One of the reasons for discontinuation was that the participant’s own doctor had put the person on a statin and they then stopped taking their randomly assigned tablet but remained part of the analysis in their originally assigned group. Almost one in five people in the placebo group ended up on a statin but were still counted as part of the placebo group.

This might have been a randomised trial, but it's difficult to view it as controlled or as a huge success as touted in the headlines.

Big thank you and credit to Dr Zoe Harcombe for putting this study under the magnifying lens.