The association between statin use and risk of age-related macular degeneration

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the association between statin use and the risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). A systematic search of the PubMed, EMBASE and ISI web of science databases was used to identify eligible published literatures without language restrictions up to April 2015. Summary relative ratios (RRs) and 95% CIs were estimated using a fixed-effect or random-effects model. A total of 14 studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in this meta-analysis. No significant association was observed between statin use and the risk of any AMD (RR, 0.95; 95% CI, 0.74-1.15); and stratified analysis showed that statins had a significantly different effects on early and late stages of AMD. For early AMD, statin use significantly reduced the risk approximately 17% (RR, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.66-0.99). At the late stage, we observed a significant protective association of statin use with exudative AMD (RR, 0.90; 95% CI, 0.80-0.99), in contrast with the absent association between statins and geographic atrophy (RR, 1.16; 95% CI, 0.77-1.56). These results demonstrated that statin use was protective for early and exudative AMD. Additional large prospective cohort studies and RCTs are required to determine the potential effect of statins on AMD prevention.