Table 2.
GRADE profile for pairwise meta-analyses
| No of participants, No of RCTs; mean follow-up | Quality of evidence | Summary of findings | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Risk of bias | Inconsistency | Indirectness | Imprecision | Publication bias | Overall certainty of evidence | Relative effect (OR (95% CI)) | Anticipated absolute effect (event rate per 10 000 people throughout mean follow-up) |
|||
| Risk with controls | Risk difference (95% CI) with statins | |||||||||
| Muscle symptoms | ||||||||||
| 65 304, 21; 4.3 years | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | None | ⨁⨁⨁⨁ High |
1.06 (1.01 to 1.13) | 951 | 56 (5 to 108) | |
| Muscle disorders | ||||||||||
| 85 740, 25; 4.2 years | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | Serious* | None | ⨁⨁⨁◯ Moderate |
0.88 (0.62 to 1.24) | 14 | −2 (−5 to 3) | |
| Liver dysfunction | ||||||||||
| 54 803, 21; 3.8 years | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | None | ⨁⨁⨁⨁ High |
1.33 (1.12 to 1.58) | 92 | 30 (11 to 53) | |
| Renal insufficiency | ||||||||||
| 32 001, 8; 4.0 years | Not serious | Serious† | Not serious | Not serious | None | ⨁⨁⨁◯ Moderate |
1.14 (1.01 to 1.28) | 343 | 45 (3 to 93) | |
| Diabetes | ||||||||||
| 58 629, 9; 4.9 years | Not serious | Serious‡ | Not serious | Not serious | None | ⨁⨁⨁◯ Moderate |
1.01 (0.88 to 1.16) | 396 | 4 (−45 to 59) | |
| Eye conditions | ||||||||||
| 25 328, 6; 3.8 years | Not serious | Serious§ | Not serious | Not serious | None | ⨁⨁⨁◯ Moderate |
1.23 (1.04 to 1.47) | 233 | 53 (8 to 105) | |
| Myocardial infarction | ||||||||||
| 95 148, 22; 4.4 years | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | None¶ | ⨁⨁⨁⨁ High |
0.72 (0.66 to 0.78) | 292 | −81 (−98 to−63) | |
| Stroke | ||||||||||
| 78 473, 17; 4.7 years | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | None | ⨁⨁⨁⨁ High |
0.80 (0.72 to 0.89) | 201 | −39 (−55 to−22) | |
| Death from cardiovascular disease | ||||||||||
| 95 959, 22; 4.4 years | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | None | ⨁⨁⨁⨁ High |
0.83 (0.76 to 0.91) | 218 | −36 (−52 to−19) | |
RCT=randomised controlled trial; OR=odds ratio; GRADE=Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation.
The analysis was underpowered to detect a difference between groups, given the low incidences in both groups.
Four studies reported the presence of proteinuria although the other four studies reported non-specific renal insufficiency.
One study was conducted in patients with impaired glucose tolerance, which resulted in statistically significant (P=0.04) heterogeneity among the included studies.
One study reported cataracts, one reported diminished visual acuity, one reported eye inflammation, two reported non-specific eye and adnexa disorders, and one reported a combination of different eye conditions.
Publication bias was detected by examining the asymmetry of the funnel plot for the pairwise meta-analysis of myocardial infarction, but the pooled results did not change after excluding the small studies that caused the detected bias.