Research

Hormonal

The absolute excess risk of new-onset diabetes from statins is highest in individuals whose baseline glycaemic markers are already close to the diagnostic threshold for diabetes.

If you have pre-diabetes or high-normal blood sugar, your risk of developing diabetes while on statins is higher than someone with normal blood sugar. This does not mean you should stop the statin, but it does mean you should monitor your blood sugar more closely and focus on lifestyle changes to keep your blood sugar in check.

StrongQualifiesHIGH confidence
approximately 62% of new-onset diabetes cases were among participants who were already in the top quarter of the baseline distribution
Christina Reith et al. · The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology · 2024

Why this rating

Individual participant data meta-analysis allows for precise subgroup analysis.

Source

Effects of statin therapy on diagnoses of new-onset diabetes and worsening glycaemia in large-scale randomised blinded statin trials: an individual participant data meta-analysis

Christina Reith et al. · The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology · 2024

DOI 10.1016/s2213-8587(24)00040-8

Meta-analysis · 23 studiesCited 132×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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