SynthesisDiabetes care2013
Statins and risk of diabetes: an analysis of electronic medical records to evaluate possible bias due to differential survival.
Synthesis in Diabetes care, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 76 citations in OpenAlex.
- Reporting of Observational Studies Explicitly Aiming to Emulate Randomized Trials: A Systematic Review.JAMA network open · 2023Pooled it
- Effect of pravastatin treatment on circulating adiponectin: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Drug design, development and therapy · 2019 · on this mapPooled it
- Association between reductions in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol with statin therapy and the risk of new-onset diabetes: a meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2017 · on this mapPooled it
- Do statins really cause diabetes? A meta-analysis of major randomized controlled clinical trials.Saudi medical journal · 2016 · on this mapPooled it
- HMG-coenzyme A reductase inhibition, type 2 diabetes, and bodyweight: evidence from genetic analysis and randomised trials.Lancet (London, England) · 2015 · on this mapPooled it
- Statin treatment, new-onset diabetes, and other adverse effects: a systematic review.Current cardiology reports · 2014Pooled it
- The Relationship of Pain Reduction With Prevention of Knee Replacement Under Dynamic Intervention Strategies.Arthritis & rheumatology (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2022Trial
- Effects of lipid-lowering drugs on irisin in human subjects in vivo and in human skeletal muscle cells ex vivo.PloS one · 2013Trial
- Association Discovery Approach in Healthcare Big Data to Identify Drug Safety and Drug Repurposing Signals.Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics · 2026Article
- Peri-operative anti-inflammatory drug use and seizure recurrence after resective epilepsy surgery: Target trials emulation.iScience · 2025Article
- Embryotoxicity of statins and other prescribed drugs with reported off-target effects on cholesterol biosynthesis.Reproductive toxicology (Elmsford, N.Y.) · 2025Article
- Detection bias and the role of negative control outcomes.BMJ medicine · 2025Article
- X chromosome dosage drives statin-induced dysglycemia and mitochondrial dysfunction.Nature communications · 2024Article
- The State of Use and Utility of Negative Controls in Pharmacoepidemiologic Studies.American journal of epidemiology · 2024Review
- Regression discontinuity design to evaluate the effect of statins on myocardial infarction in electronic health records.European journal of epidemiology · 2023Article
- Hepatocyte cholesterol content modulates glucagon receptor signalling.Molecular metabolism · 2022Article
- Effectiveness of Statins for Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease in Low- and Medium-Risk Males: A Causal Inference Approach with Observational Data.Journal of personalized medicine · 2022Article
- Evaluating Risk of Incident Diabetes Between Patients Who Used Lovastatin and Red Yeast Rice Prescriptions (LipoCol Forte): A Retrospective Cohort Study Based on a Real-World Database.Diabetes, metabolic syndrome and obesity : targets and therapy · 2020Article
- The Niemann-Pick C1-like 1 rs2073547 polymorphism is associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus in a Chinese population.The Journal of international medical research · 2019Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTwo meta-analyses of randomized trials of statins found increased risk of type 2 diabetes. One possible explanation is bias due to differential survival when patients who are at higher risk of diabetes survive longer under statin treatment. RESEARCH DESIGN AND
methodsWe used electronic medical records from 500 general practices in the U.K. and included data from 285,864 men and women aged 50-84 years from January 2000 to December 2010. We emulated the design and analysis of a hypothetical randomized trial of statins, estimated the observational analog of the intention-to-treat effect, and adjusted for differential survival bias using inverse-probability weighting.
resultsDuring 1.2 million person-years of follow-up, there were 13,455 cases of type 2 diabetes and 8,932 deaths. Statin initiation was associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes. The hazard ratio (95% CI) of diabetes was 1.45 (1.39-1.50) before adjusting for potential confounders and 1.14 (1.10-1.19) after adjustment. Adjusting for differential survival did not change the estimates. Initiating atorvastatin and simvastatin was associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes.
conclusionsIn this sample of the general population, statin therapy was associated with 14% increased risk of type 2 diabetes. Differential survival did not explain this increased risk.
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What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.