AHA Scientific Sessions 2026 AbstractNov 9, 2026, 01:19 GMT

Death rates differed in statin users with obesity and artery disease

Among statin users with obesity and artery disease, starting one of five added drugs was linked to three-year death rates of 4.0% versus 7.5% with statins alone.

Paper by Sunanda Tah, Efeturi M Okorigba, Michael D Cheshire · WVU Camden Clark · WVU Medicine

An opened artery with plaque and a dark clot lies between intact and damaged heart muscle, beside groups of people with contrasting gaps.

Our read

Interventions

Studied:: Cohort study of 239,822 adults with obesity and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, 3 years
What changed:: All-cause mortality was lower with added GLP-1 receptor agonists: 4.0% vs. 7.5% in statin-only controls
The catch:: People prescribed the added drugs may have differed in health or care despite matching
In the record:: The 1,380th paper on GLP-1 receptor agonists with results in people; 4,830 on record in all. Its result on mortality agrees with 197 of 218 other findings on record; 2 point the other way and 19 found no change.

Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News

Paper

Adults with obesity and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, involving plaque buildup in arteries, were studied in a retrospective observational cohort using US healthcare records. Researchers matched 119,911 people who started one of five additional drugs—semaglutide, liraglutide, dulaglutide, exenatide or tirzepatide—with 119,911 taking statins alone. Participants averaged 63 years old, and 44% were female.

Over three years, taking the added drugs was associated with fewer deaths, heart attacks and ischemic strokes, caused by blocked blood flow to the brain. Heart attacks occurred in 6.0% of people taking the added drugs versus 7.1% of those taking statins alone. Stroke rates were 0.3% versus 0.4%, respectively. The associations persisted across several additional analyses.

Why it matters

For these adults averaging 63 years old, the question was whether additional medication could address cardiovascular risk remaining despite statin use. The authors called for randomized trials to test that possibility.

Caveats

People prescribed the added drugs may have differed in health or care from statin-only patients despite matching on 34 factors. People with type 1 diabetes, prior weight-loss surgery or pregnancy were excluded; the conference abstract gave no side-effect data.