Assessing statins use in a real-world primary care digital strategy: a cross-sectional analysis of a population-wide digital health approachResearch in context

Abstract

Summary: Background: The digitization of the primary care system provides an opportunity to evaluate the current use of statins in secondary prevention populations (myocardial infarction or stroke). Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study (ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT05285085), analysing anonymised data routinely collected by community health workers (CHW) in Brazil between May 2016 and September 2021 to assess the proportion of self-reported statins use and associated factors. Findings: From the 2,133,900 individuals on the database, 35,103 (1.6%), mean age 66.2 years (SD14.6), 49.5% (17,382/35,103) male sex, 50.5% (17,721/35,103) female sex, and 29.6% (10,381/34,975) Caucasians, had a previous myocardial infarction (MI) (n = 11,628; 33.1%) or stroke (n = 25,925; 73.9%). Approximately 50% (17,020/35,103) were from the Northeast region, 78.7% (27,605) from urban zones, and 39.4% (13,845) with social development index (SDI) >0.7. Overall, 6.7% (2346) and 0.6% (212) reported statins and high dose statins use, respectively. Age over 60 years old (OR 1.32 [95% CI 1.19–1.47), living in the Southern region (OR 4.53 [95% CI 3.66–5.60]), having a previous diagnosis of MI (OR 4.53 [95% CI 3.66–5.60]), heart failure (OR 2.29 [95% CI 1.13–1.47]), diabetes (OR 1.50 [95% CI 1.37–1.64]), dyslipidaemia (OR 2.90 [95% CI 2.55–3.29]), chronic kidney disease (OR 1.27 [95% CI 1.08–1.48]) and use of anti-hypertensives (OR 5.47 [95% CI 4.60–6.47]) were associated with statin use. Interpretation: The analysis of a real-world database from a digitized primary care system, allowed us to identify a very low use of statins in secondary prevention Brazilian patients, mostly influenced by socio-demographic factors and co-morbidities. Funding: Novartis Biociências, Brazil.

Keywords

• Primary care
• Digital health
• Statins use
• Dyslipidaemia