No abstract

Compared with statin monotherapy, ezetimibe with statin therapy was cost-effective for secondary prevention of CHD and stroke and for primary prevention of these conditions in patients whose LDL-C levels are ≥100 mg/dL and in patients with diabetes, taking into account a 90% cost reduction for ezetimibe.

Objective. The primary objective of the study was to estimate the rates of polypharmacy among individuals with multimorbidity defined as chronic condition clusters and examine their associations with polypharmacy. Methods. Cross-sectional analysis of 10,528 individuals of age above 21, with at least one physical condition in cardiometabolic (diabetes or heart disease or hypertension), musculoskeletal (arthritis or osteoporosis), and respiratory (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or asthma) clusters from the 2009 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. Chi-square tests and logistic regressions were performed to analyze the association between polypharmacy and multimorbidity. Results. Polypharmacy rates varied from a low of 7.2% among those with respiratory cluster to a high of 64.1% among those with all three disease clusters. Among those with two or more disease clusters, the rates varied from 28.3% for musculoskeletal and respiratory clusters to 41.8% for those with cardiometabolic and respiratory clusters. Individual with cardiometabolic conditions alone or in combination with other disease clusters were more likely to have polypharmacy. Compared to those with musculoskeletal and respiratory conditions, those with cardiometabolic and respiratory conditions had 1.68 times higher likelihood of polypharmacy. Conclusions. Rates of polypharmacy differed by specific disease clusters. Individuals with cardiometabolic condition were particularly at high risk of polypharmacy, suggesting greater surveillance for adverse drug interaction in this group.

Our systematic review found that statin significantly reduced the all-cause and prostate cancer-specific mortality and improved the BCR in certain subgroup of men with prostate cancer. In future, randomized controlled trials should be conducted to establish efficacy of statins among men with prostate cancer.