Statin therapy is associated with better ambulatory blood pressure control: A propensity score analysis

OBJECTIVE: Statin therapy was associated with lower blood pressure (BP) in some but not all studies. We evaluated the association between statin therapy and ambulatory BP in a large hypertensive population using 'propensity score matching'. METHODS: Retrospective observational study on 1827 consecutive essential hypertensive patients evaluated with 24-h ambulatory BP monitoring. Antihypertensive treatment intensity (ATI) was calculated to compare different drug associations. We used a propensity score matching to compare two equally-sized cohorts of patients with similar characteristics according to statin therapy. Matching was performed on log-transformed propensity score in a 1 : 1 fashion with a caliper of 0.1, in order to account for the different baseline characteristics between statin and no-statin group. RESULTS: Mean age: 58.1 ± 13.8 years; male sex: 55%. Patients on statin therapy: 402 (22%). These patients showed lower 24-h BP (-2.8/-7.1 mmHg), daytime (-3.3/-7.6 mmHg) and night-time BP (-2.5/-6.0 mmHg, all P < 0.001). They also showed better ambulatory BP control, even after adjustment for confounding factors. The analyses on the groups derived from the 'propensity score matching' (369 patients in each group) confirmed these results (OR 1.8 for 24-h BP control; OR = 1.6 for daytime BP control; OR = 1.7 for night-time BP control, all P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Statin therapy is associated with better ambulatory BP control in essential hypertensive patients. This result is not affected by the intensity of the antihypertensive treatment or by the several cofactors analyzed.