Statins improve activities of daily living ability in Alzheimer disease patients

Afbeelding

Objectives:
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a common type of dementia, which has caused heavy global economic and health burden and the using of statins to treat Alzheimer disease has caused widely debated. Therefore, this review article has been conducted.

Does statin use decrease Alzheimer disease?

Study design:
This review article included a total of 9 RCTs containing 1,489 patients. Of them, 742 patients in the statins group, 747 patients in the control group (group without statins).

There were 9 studies used the MMSE scale, 5 studies used the ADAS-Cog scale, 4 studies used the NPI scale and 6 studies used the ADL scale.

Sensitivity analysis and publication bias test were both negative and the results were relatively reliable and stable.

Results and conclusions:
The investigators found meta-analysis of the 9 studies that reported the MMSE scale scores indicated that there was no significant effect of statins as compared with control group [pooled WMD = 1.09, 95% CI = -0.00 to 2.18, p = 0.05, I2 = 87.9%].

The investigators found meta-analysis of the 5 studies that reported the ADAS-Cog scale scores also indicated that there was no significant effect of statins as compared with control group [pooled WMD = -0.16, 95% CI = -2.67 to 2.36, p = 0.90, I2 = 80.1%].

The investigators found meta-analysis of the 4 studies that reported the NPI scale scores indicated that treatment with statins significantly slowed the rise in the NPI scale scores as compared with control group [pooled WMD = -1.16, 95% CI = -1.88 to -0.44, p = 0.002, I2 = 45.4%].

The investigators found meta-analysis of the 6 studies that reported the ADL scale scores indicated that treatment with statins significantly improve patients' daily living ability [pooled WMD = -4.06, 95% CI = -6.88 to -1.24, p = 0.005, I2 = 86.7%].

The investigators found results of subgroup analysis indicated that the use of statins in the short term (≤ 12 months) associated with the change of the MMSE scale scores [pooled WMD = 1.78, 95% CI = 0.53 to 3.04, p = 0.005, I2 = 79.6%].

The investigators concluded statins used in Alzheimer disease patients have beneficial effects on the scores of MMSE scale in the short term (≤ 12 months) and statins slow the deterioration of neuropsychiatric status and improve activities of daily living ability in Alzheimer disease patients.

Original title:
The efficacy of statins in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trial by Xuan K, Zhao T, […], Sun Y.

Link:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31930449

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