New research presented at ESC Congress 2026 and published in Lancet Community Health – Europe suggests that starting statin treatment soon after a type 2 diabetes diagnosis may be associated with a lower risk of dementia.
As populations age, the number of people living with dementia is expected to rise substantially. Because there are currently no effective treatments that can prevent or reverse most forms of dementia, researchers are increasingly examining modifiable risk factors that may help reduce dementia risk.
According to the Lancet Commission, almost half of dementia cases could theoretically be prevented or delayed by addressing 14 modifiable risk factors. Managing cholesterol from midlife onward is one of these factors.
“Detecting and treating high levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) from midlife onward is one of the highlighted modifiable risk factors,” explained study presenter Tumas Ternhammar, MD, of Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark.
The issue may be particularly important for people with type 2 diabetes. Although elevated LDL-C is common among these patients, diabetes itself is also associated with an increased risk of cognitive decline and dementia.
“We hypothesized that starting LDL-C-lowering statins soon after a type 2 diabetes diagnosis may be associated with a lower risk of dementia,” said Dr. Ternhammar. “We tested this hypothesis in a large national study using analytical methods designed to emulate randomized trials and reduce some of the biases associated with observational research.”
More than 132,000 people included in the study
Researchers used Denmark’s national health registers to identify 132,585 people who had never taken statins and were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes between 2006 and 2019. Participants were followed until the end of 2021, and their medical records were assessed for new diagnoses of all-cause dementia.
The researchers used a weighted study design to compare dementia rates based on when statin treatment was started. One group did not begin statin therapy within five years of receiving a type 2 diabetes diagnosis. A second group started statins within one year of diagnosis, while a third began treatment between one and five years after diagnosis.
During a median follow-up period of 7.1 years, 2.7% of participants developed dementia.
Starting statins early was linked to a lower dementia risk
Compared with people who did not start statin therapy, those who began treatment within one year of their type 2 diabetes diagnosis had a 15% lower relative risk of developing dementia over 10 years.
Starting statins later was also associated with a lower dementia risk, although the association was smaller. People who began treatment between one and five years after their diabetes diagnosis had a 10% lower relative risk of dementia over 10 years. Similar findings were observed in both women and men.
Dr. Ternhammar concluded: “In people with type 2 diabetes, statin use was associated with a reduced risk of dementia, with the greatest association seen among those who started treatment early. Despite their established cardiovascular benefits, statins appear to be underused in people with type 2 diabetes. Our findings suggest another potentially important reason to ensure that patients with type 2 diabetes and elevated LDL-C receive timely statin treatment.”
Observational findings cannot prove statins prevent dementia
The results suggest that starting statin therapy soon after a type 2 diabetes diagnosis may offer potential benefits beyond cardiovascular protection. However, because this was an observational study, it cannot establish that statins directly prevent dementia.
Commenting on the findings, Professor Isabel Goncalves, a member of the ESC Communication Committee, said: “People with type 2 diabetes already face a higher risk of dementia and are advised to lower their cholesterol to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. This study shows that starting statins soon after a type 2 diabetes diagnosis is also associated with a small reduction in dementia risk. This finding is potentially important because statins are widely available and inexpensive. However, this was an observational study and cannot prove that statins prevent dementia. The results should therefore support further research and inform discussions between patients and healthcare professionals.”
This study was supported by grants from the Danish Cardiovascular Academy, with support from the Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Danish Heart Foundation, Hellerup and Gentofte Hospital, Sneckelmester Sohus Jacobsen and Astrid Jacobsens Fond, Beckett Fonden, Overlæge Johan Boserup and Lise Boserup’s Legat, and Director Jakob Madsen and Frøken Olga Madsen’s Fond.
Source: www.sciencedaily.com