Statins, a class of cholesterol-lowering drugs, have no effect on kidney function, a research team led by the University of Iowa has found.

The research team, led by clinical professors Michelle Fravel and Michael Ernst, in the College of Pharmacy, examined the association between statin use in older adults and changes in two important indicators of kidney function — estimated glomerular filtration rate and urine albumin-to-creatinine (protein-to-waste) ratio.

“The data supports the kidney safety of statins in older adults with or without chronic kidney disease,” the authors write. They suggest that “the decision to use a statin for other indications should not be limited by concerns related to potential kidney harm.”

The researchers used data collected from a previous research trial that studied use of daily low-dose aspirin in more than 18,000 older adults from the United States and Australia between 2010 and 2017. Among that population, one in five participants had chronic kidney disease. The median age was 76 in participants with chronic kidney disease and 74 in those without.

Examining the data, the Iowa researchers found statin use did not improve kidney function, as had been hypothesized in some previous scientific studies. The drugs also had no ill effects.

Statins are commonly prescribed to older adults to help lower the risk of heart disease.

“While older adults are at greatest risk of cardiovascular events and kidney function decline, they are also the population at highest risk of adverse effects from medications; therefore, evidence demonstrating no negative association between statin use and kidney function provides an equally important message to one of kidney benefit,” the authors wrote.

The study, “Effects of statins on kidney function in older adults,” was published online on Dec. 18 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Fravel is the study’s corresponding author. In addition to Ernst, other contributing authors include Robyn Woods, Suzanne Orchard, Kevan Polkinghorne, Rory Wolfe, Mark Nelson, Elisa Bongetti, Sophia Zoungas, Zhen Zhou, James Wetmore, and Anne Murray.

The National Institute on Aging and the National Cancer Institute, branches of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, Monash University, and the Victorian Cancer Agency funded the research.