Should we prescribe statins for primary prevention of cardiovascular risk? Rather yes

Should we prescribe statins for primary prevention of cardiovascular risk ? About half of cardiovascular events occur among people in primary prevention. Recently, 2 well-conducted meta-analyses of randomized clinical trials demonstrated that primary prevention with statin treatment leads to a 14% decrease of all-cause mortality and to a 22-27% decrease of major cardiovascular events. The cost-effectiveness ratio of primary prevention with statins is largely positive because the number of patients needed to treat during 5 years to prevent one major cardiovascular event is low (less than 100). The cardiovascular benefit of primary prevention with statins exceeds the risk of potential adverse events. The challenge of primary prevention is to identify high cardiovascular risk patients in whom a statin treatment will prevent a major cardiovascular event.