What is the risk of developing diabetes mellitus associated with high-dose statin use?
A meta-analysis by Engeda et al. (2019) showed that high-dose statins increase the risk of diabetes mellitus (DM) compared to placebo with a number needed to harm (NNH) of 208 over four years with no increased risk with lower statin doses.[48] In the JUPITER trial, the NNH for DM was nearly identical to the NNT to reduce all-cause mortality.[47] A meta-analysis by Wang et al. (2017) showed an increase in incident DM with any statin (OR: 1.11, 95% CI: 1.03 1.2) with high-dose statins conferring more risk (OR: 1.18, 95% CI: 1.10 1.28, NNH=130 over four years).[57]