UK heart disease prevention threshold “cheapest but least effective”
June 2006Professor Paul Durrington of the School of Medicine has led a comparative study of recommendations on the use of cholesterol-lowering statins to prevent cardiovascular disease.
The research compared UK, European, and US recommendations, and found the UK’s National Health Service Framework to be both the cheapest and least effective. By targeting just those at highest risk of heart attack or stroke it is only reducing the rate of ‘first disease episodes’ in the overall population by 9% - the lowest preventive impact of all recommendations worldwide.
To cut the rate by 30%, the team found that almost the entire UK population would have to be given statins in middle-age. Professor Durrington said: “Whether cholesterol-lowering on such a scale should be attempted with drugs raises philosophical, psychological, and economic considerations, and more effective policies on nutrition should also be considered.”
