TY - JOUR T1 - Baseline hemoglobin A1c and risk of statin-induced diabetes: results of Veterans Affairs Database analysis JF - BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care JO - BMJ Open Diab Res Care DO - 10.1136/bmjdrc-2021-002554 VL - 10 IS - 1 SP - e002554 AU - Anna P Ziganshina AU - Darren E Gemoets AU - Laurence S Kaminsky AU - Aidar R Gosmanov Y1 - 2022/01/01 UR - http://drc.bmj.com/content/10/1/e002554.abstract N2 - Development of new-onset diabetes mellitus (NODM) is one of the side effects of statin therapy.1 Since the absolute risk of statin-induced diabetes is small, it remains unclear if there are any specific factors that might predispose to hyperglycemia following statin initiation. Conditions such as metabolic syndrome, hypertension, and/or low exercise tolerance2 have been proposed as potential risk factors based on relatively small prospective trials or observational studies that were not initially designed for evaluating of statin-induced NODM. The goal of this study was to determine if baseline level of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) is a significant and independent risk factor that increases the risk of statin-induced diabetes.This was a retrospective nationwide cohort study of US Veterans without prior diagnosis of diabetes started on most commonly used in Veterans Healthcare Administration system statins (atorvastatin, simvastatin, pravastatin). Between January 2011 and December 2018, we identified 152 358 patients using the following inclusion criteria: availability of full demographic and clinical information, baseline HbA1c <6.5%, no International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Version (ICD-9) diagnosis of diabetes or use of diabetes medications except metformin (as it can be used in the management of pre-diabetes), baseline calculated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) value, and adequate adherence to statins (determined based on proportion of days covered ≥80%)3 (table 1). Baseline HbA1c values were stratified into three categories: ≤5.6%, 5.7%–5.9% and 6.0%–6.4%. The risk of statin-induced … ER -