Statin Exposure and Risk of Dialysis in Type 2 Diabetes: A Real-World Cohort Study
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Background
Renal effects of statins in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) remain uncertain. We evaluated whether statin exposure is associated with time to dialysis initiation.
Methods
We conducted a retrospective cohort study of adults with T2DM, indexing follow-up at diagnosis during first hospital admission (day 0) between january 2017 and march 2025. Statin use was modeled as time-varying from statin days; (classified in 3 categories: baseline users, new users, and never users). The primary outcome was dialysis. Analysis estimated cause-specific hazards, censoring deaths; proportional hazards were checked with prespecified windows of statin exposure (0–1, 1–3, > 3 years). Competing-risk analyses (Fine–Gray) assessed the sub-distribution hazard of dialysis with death as a competing event in two models: (i) prevalent users at baseline and (ii) new-users with post-initiation intervals of 30 and 90 days. An Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership Common Data Model standardized dataset of a Brazilian quaternary hospital, and the Real-World Data tool MD Clone were used in the study.
Results
Of 36,246 adults identified, 32,125 entered the time-varying cohort (39,943 risk intervals; 656 dialysis events); median follow-up among censored patients was 753 days. At baseline, 70.3% never used statins, 5.5% were users (≤ 0 days), and 24.2% initiated after diagnosis. Crude dialysis incidence was 4.51 vs. 12.31 per 1,000 patient-years during unexposed vs. exposed time. In the adjusted time-varying Cox model, current statin exposure was associated with a modestly higher hazard of dialysis (HR = 1.043, 95% CI 1.011–1.077). In the new-users analysis, HRs were 0.83 (95% CI 0.66–1.05), and 0.73 (95% CI 0.57–0.92) with a 30-day and 90-day intervals, respectively.
Conclusions
In this retrospective cohort of hospitalized diabetic patients at baseline, statin initiation at least 90-days in advance is associated with reduced indication of renal replacement therapy.
