Statin use trajectories postbariatric surgery: a matched cohort analysis.

Background: Metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS) is the most durable treatment of obesity and can reduce statin use.

Objective: We compare statin use trajectories in patients with and without MBS.

Methods: Adults with a body mass index ≥ 35kg/m² were identified using a U.S. employer-based retrospective claims database. Individuals who had MBS were matched 1:1 with those who did not. Trajectories of statin use were stratified by statin use in the year before the index date and examined in the 2 years after the index date.

Setting: University Hospital.

Results: Sixteen thousand three hundred fifty-nine adults who had MBS and 16,359 matched adults who did not were analyzed. In both groups, 19.4% filled a statin prescription in the year before the index date. In the 2 years after the index date, individuals using statins remained similar at 20% (year 1) and 19% (year 2) among those who didn't have an MBS and decreased to 12.5% (year 1) and 9.3% (year 2) in the MBS cohort. Among baseline statin users, 35.4% of non-MBS and 60.4% of the MBS cohort stopped using statins within 2 years of the index date. Among statin naïve individuals at baseline, 9.6% of the non-MBS cohort started using statins within 2 years of the index date, compared to 2.6% of those who had MBS.

Conclusions: MBS results in a significant discontinuation of statins among baseline users, and significantly decreased the initiation of medications among individuals who were statin naive at baseline. This demonstrates that MBS is both a treatment and preventative measure for dyslipidemia.