Association between delirium and statin use in patients with congestive heart failure: a retrospective propensity score-weighted analysis

Background: The relationship between statin use and delirium remains controversial; therefore, we aimed to study the association between statin exposure and delirium and in-hospital mortality in patients with congestive heart failure.

Methods: In this retrospective study, patients with congestive heart failure were identified from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care database. The primary exposure variable was statin use 3 days after admission to the intensive care unit, and the primary outcome measure was the presence of delirium. The secondary outcome measure was in-hospital mortality. Since the cohort study was retrospective, we used inverse probability weighting derived from the propensity score to balance various variables.

Results: Of 8,396 patients, 5,446 (65%) were statin users. Before matching, the prevalence of delirium was 12.5% and that of in-hospital mortality was 11.8% in patients with congestive heart failure. Statin use was significantly negatively correlated with delirium, with an odds ratio of 0.76 (95% confidence interval: [0.66–0.87]; P < 0.001) in the inverse probability weighting cohort and in-hospital mortality of 0.66 (95% confidence interval: [0.58–0.75]; P < 0.001).

Conclusion: Statins administered in the intensive care unit can significantly reduce the incidence of delirium and in-hospital mortality in patients with congestive heart failure.