In the first five years of treating 1,000 men who had a history of raised cholesterol but without heart attacks who were prescribed statins (medicines that help lower cholesterol in the blood) no evidence of harm was seen. There were lasting health benefits and cost savings to the NHS. Further research on this trial over 20 years showed reduced deaths, heart attacks and admissions for heart disease.
Data was collected from hospital records, Cancer Registry data and death records.
Funding was from Bristol-Myers Squibb, the Sankyo Company, grants from the Chief Scientist’s Office Scotland, Wellcome Trust (Scottish Health Informatics Programme), Celera Diagnostics and the Farr Institute.
Click below to see how the study was undertaken and discover more detailed results:
- Prescribing statins to men without a history of heart attacks | Understanding patient data
- Long-Term Follow-up of the West of Scotland Coronary Prevention Study | NEJM
- Long-term impact on healthcare resource utilization of statin treatment, and its cost effectiveness in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease: a record linkage study | European Heart Journal | Oxford Academic
- Long-Term Safety and Efficacy of Lowering Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol With Statin Therapy | Circulation