More elderly people should be using statins, Oxford experts have said after a new study suggested the common drugs can improve health outcomes for over-70s.

The cholesterol-busting medication is a “cornerstone” in preventing heart disease, researchers have said.

But despite the ageing population and the “markedly higher cardiovascular disease risk with increasing age” there is “lower” statin use among older people, they added.

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A research team, led by academics from the University of Oxford, said there is “less definitive evidence” about the benefits of the drugs among older patients who have not got a history of cardiovascular disease.

They examined the benefits of statin use in older people with and without a history of heart problems.

The new modelling study drew data from two long-term UK studies tracking the health of the population – the UK Biobank and the Whitehall II studies.

Using the data, they projected the number of years people can expect to live in good health - in 5,103 people with previous cardiovascular disease and in 15,019 without.

The authors also performed a cost-benefit analysis on statin treatment.

They concluded that statin use was linked to better health outcomes in older people with or without previous cardiovascular disease.

Their analysis also found that statin therapy “had a very high probability” of being cost-effective.

“Our results indicate that older people are likely to cost-effectively benefit from statin treatment,” the authors wrote in the journal Heart.

Lead author Dr Borislava Mihaylova, associate professor and senior health economist at the University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Population Health is among those leading the research.

The expert said: “Our study reports that statins are likely to increase quality of life-adjusted survival cost-effectively for both men and women aged over 70 years irrespective of whether or not they have had heart disease or stroke previously.

“It indicates that more older people should be considered for treatment.”

Tim Chico, professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Sheffield, has worked alongside the Oxford researchers on the study.

He said: “The most reliable way to understand whether a treatment like statins prevents heart disease is a randomised controlled trial (RCT) where people are given the drug or placebo.

“This new study takes an approach to ‘simulate’ what would happen if people over 70 were treated with statins.".

A statement from the study authors added: “While further evidence for statins effects in older people will be helpful, the robustness of the findings to variations in key parameters suggests that delaying statin treatment in the millions of older people while awaiting new evidence is unjustifiable.”