How many people aren’t taking needed medicines to reduce cardiovascular risk? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Most people have heard of statins, drugs that lower cholesterol and consequent cardiovascular disease risk. Caleb Alexander, a drug safety and efficacy expert at Johns Hopkins, and colleagues, have looked at just how many people who should be taking such medicines aren’t.

Alexander: Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States despite the benefits of treatments to treat high cholesterol, treatments such as statins or ezetimibe or another class of drugs called PCSK 9 inhibitors. These therapies are widely underutilized. We wanted to examine among a nationally representative sample exactly how commonly these products are used and how large are the gaps between what guidelines recommend and what actually takes place in clinical practice.   :33

Alexander says everyone should be asking their primary care physician about their cardiovascular disease risk and whether they should be taking a medicine to reduce that risk. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.