Statin use and all-cause mortality in people living with HIV: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: It is unknown whether statin use among people living with HIV results in a reduction in all-cause mortality. We aimed to evaluate the effect of statin use on all-cause mortality among people living with HIV. METHODS: We conducted comprehensive literature searches of Medline, Embase, CINAHL, the Cochrane Library, and cross-references up to April 2018. We included randomised, quasi-randomised trials and prospective cohort studies that examined the association between statin use and cardio-protective and mortality outcomes among people living with HIV. Two reviewers independently abstracted the data. Hazard ratios (HRs) were pooled using empirical Bayesian random-effect meta-analysis. A number of sensitivity analyses were conducted. RESULTS: We included seven studies with a total of 35,708 participants. The percentage of participants on statins across the studies ranged from 8 to 35%. Where reported, the percentage of participants with hypertension ranged from 14 to 35% and 7 to 10% had been diagnosed with diabetes mellitus. Statin use was associated with a 33% reduction in all-cause mortality (pooled HR = 0.67, 95% Credible Interval 0.39 to 0.96). The probability that statin use conferred a moderate mortality benefit (i.e. decreased risk of mortality of at least 25%, HR ≤ 0.75) was 71.5%. Down-weighting and excluding the lower quality studies resulted in a more conservative estimate of the pooled HR. CONCLUSION: Statin use appears to confer moderate mortality benefits in people living with HIV. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12879-018-3162-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.