Fenofibrate add-on to statin treatment is associated with low all-cause death and cardiovascular disease in the general population with high triglyceride levels.

BACKGROUND

We investigated the effects of fenofibrate add-on to statin treatment on all-cause death and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the general population who had high triglyceride (TG).

METHODS

We performed a population-based cohort study using data from the Korea National Health Information Database for 2010 to 2017. Among participants who had already used statins and had TG ≥ 150 mg/dL, 277,836 fenofibrate users were identified and compared with 277,836 fenofibrate non-users with 1:1 age- and sex-adjusted matching.

RESULTS

During a mean 4.13-year follow-up, the incidences per 1000 person years of all-cause death and CVD were lower in fenofibrate users than in fenofibrate non-users (4.812 vs. 5.354 for all-cause death, P < 0.0001; 6.283 vs. 6.420 for CVD, P < 0.0001). The hazard ratios (HR) for all-cause death and CVD among fenofibrate users were 0.826 (95 % CI 0.795-0.858) and 0.929 (95 % CI 0.898-0.962), respectively. In addition, 73.35 % of participants did not have diabetes and fenofibrate showed consistently beneficial effects on all-cause death or CVD in patients with and without diabetes. Use of fenofibrate for more than one year was associated with low risk for both all-cause death (HR 0.618) and CVD (HR 0.853), but use of fenofibrate for less than one year was not.

CONCLUSIONS

Fenofibrate as an add-on to statin treatment was associated with low risk of all-cause death and CVD in general population who had high TG. These beneficial effects were consistent regardless of the presence of diabetes, but at least one year of fenofibrate use was needed.