Association Between Statin Medication and Asthma/Asthma Exacerbation in a National Health Screening Cohort

Background: Statins, which are a type of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-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: To evaluate 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 2 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, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.98-1.03; P = .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 AE group. A statin prescription was associated with fewer AEs in patients with asthma (adjusted odds ratio, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.84-0.93; P < .001 for 1 year of statin prescription).

Conclusions: 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.