Association between statin medication and asthma/asthma exacerbation in a national health screening cohort

Abstract Background Statins, which are a type of HMG-CoA inhibitor, have multiple therapeutic effects, including anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties. Despite positive preclinical data on statin use in patients with asthma, clinical trials and epidemiological studies have yielded conflicting results. Objective We evaluated the association between statin use and an asthma diagnosis in all participants and the effects of statins on asthma-related outcomes among patients with asthma using a national health screening cohort. Methods Patients with asthma and control participants matched for age group, sex, income, and region of residence were selected from the Korean National Health Insurance Service-Health Screening Cohort data. This case-control study comprised 88,780 people with asthma and the same number of control participants. Asthma exacerbation (AE) was defined as an emergency department visit, a history of hospitalization due to asthma, or the use of systemic steroids for two weeks. Conditional and unconditional logistic regression analyses were used to evaluate the effect of the previous use of statins on an asthma diagnosis or AE after adjusting for multiple covariates. Results A significant association between a statin prescription and an asthma diagnosis was not observed in this cohort (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]=1.01, 95% confidence interval [CI]=0.98-1.03, P=0.633 for 1 year of statin prescription). Among the patients with asthma, 16.54% (n=14,687) were categorized into the AE group, and the others (n=74,093) were categorized into the no asthma exacerbation (NAE) group. A statin prescription was associated with fewer AEs in patients with asthma (aOR=0.89, 95% CI=0.84-0.93, P Conclusion Statin use was associated with a reduced risk of asthma-related emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and systemic steroid use in patients with asthma in this cohort study.