What evidence supports the use of statins for primary CV event prevention?
The body of evidence supporting the use of statins for primary CV event prevention is primarily limited by study populations with wide variability in CV risk and varied inclusion criteria. However, there is consistent evidence of improvement in CV and all-cause mortality and reduction in MACE with limited harms, which suggests that the benefits of moderate-dose statins outweigh the harms of treatment, although the absolute improvement varies based on baseline risk. The Work Group considered the evidence put forth in the 2014 CPG [36-39,44,48-51] as well as randomized primary prevention trials [40,42,45,47] in order to determine this recommendation.