As per research published recently in the Arthritis Care & Research Journal, the patients who used statins for more than five years has considerably less risk of knee pain although their role in osteoarthritis (OA) management is still debatable.

Statins, HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors show various pleiotropic impacts, but their relationship with regards to knee osteoarthritis is inadequate. This study was conducted among the North American people to evaluate whether statins were associated with reduced risk of symptomatic radiographic knee OA (SROA), radiographic OA (ROA) and related pain or not. The analysis involved 4,448 patients from the Osteoarthritis Initiative. Self-reported information approved by a trained interviewer were utilised to define the use of statins. The study population was followed-up for four years. The incident ROA and SROA and knee pain worsening i.e., Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index difference between baseline and each annual exam ≥14%) were taken as knee OA outcomes. A total of 1,127 patients used statins at the baseline. No association between statins and reduced risk of incident ROA and SROA and knee pain was noticed. Although, statins involved atorvastatin for more than five years was associated with a reduced risk of developing pain, but rosuvastatin, on the other hand, showed the opposite response. The adjustment for the propensity score validated the conclusions regarding statins at baseline, after treatment and five years after the procedure.