Australian patients with diabetes have seen a substantial drop in their LDL-cholesterol levels as a result of widespread statin use, figures from a Victorian hospital suggest.

Two decades ago, only one in 20 patients attending diabetes clinics at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne,  was using a statin, and the average LDL-C level was 3.7mmol/L.

By 2014, almost 70% of patients were using lipid lowering therapy and mean LDL-levels were 2.4mmol/L, an audit of 1023 patients records by Dr Katerina Kliberg and colleagues in the hospital’s Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes found.

The expansion in lipid-lowering drug use among diabetes patients followed the release of findings from major statin trials that showed reductions in risk for diabetes patients, the study authors noted.

Among diabetes patients, the percentage meeting the former LDL-C target levels of 3.6mmol/L increased from 36% to 46% between 1995 and 2006. By 2013, new lower LDL-C targets of 2.6 mmol/L were met by 67% of diabetes patients without a history of cardiovascular disease. However, only 29% of diabetes patients with a history of CHD met the more ambitious target of 1.8mmol/L.

Statins accounted for almost 80% of lipid lowering therapy, while 14% were fibrates and 5% were ezetimibe. Almost half the patients taking statins (44%) were on a dosage greater than or equal to 40 mg/day, 23% were taking  between 20 and 40 mg/day and 33% took  less than 20 mg/day.

While guidelines recommend lip therapy as primary prevention for people with risk factors such as diabetes, some clinic patients may not have been taking them because they were young people with type 1 diabetes, the study authors said.

“The results of our audit suggest that there has been a substantial increase in the use of lipid-lowering therapies by patients with diabetes over the last 20 years, which has resulted in a significant improvement in LDL-cholesterol levels,” they concluded.

The findings are published in Internal Medicine Journal.