>IOW remarkably low LDL concentrations increase death rates.
Since you must have read the article, given that you're citing it, what were your thoughts on the following things that I found troubling:
(1) People were stratifed according to post-treatment TC, not according to any baseline measure, LDL-C, or an appropriate compound measure of risk. In other words, this is all post hoc, and highly suspect.
(2) The group with low on-treatment TC was overwhelmingly male (>60%, vs 30-40% in other groups) at baseline.
(3) The groups with low on-treatment TC had higher blood pressure (53-58% vs 39-48%) at baseline.
(4) The groups with low on-treatment TC were overwhelmingly more alcoholic (45% vs 28%) at baseline.
(5) The groups with low on-treatment TC were overwhelmingly more burdened by liver disease (11-16% vs 8%) at baseline.
(6) The groups with low on-treatment TC were overwhelmingly more likely to smoke (30% vs 15%) at baseline.
In other words, there are plenty of reasons at baseline! for the low TC group to exhibit increased risk of all-cause death. Perhaps the most interesting conclusion is that the statins appeared to protect these hypertensive male smokers from cardiovascular disease!
Your conclusion is almost certainly incorrect (and probably inverted, in fact), due to the confounders that I've enumerated above.
Since you must have read the article, given that you're citing it, what were your thoughts on the following things that I found troubling:
(1) People were stratifed according to post-treatment TC, not according to any baseline measure, LDL-C, or an appropriate compound measure of risk. In other words, this is all post hoc, and highly suspect.
(2) The group with low on-treatment TC was overwhelmingly male (>60%, vs 30-40% in other groups) at baseline.
(3) The groups with low on-treatment TC had higher blood pressure (53-58% vs 39-48%) at baseline.
(4) The groups with low on-treatment TC were overwhelmingly more alcoholic (45% vs 28%) at baseline.
(5) The groups with low on-treatment TC were overwhelmingly more burdened by liver disease (11-16% vs 8%) at baseline.
(6) The groups with low on-treatment TC were overwhelmingly more likely to smoke (30% vs 15%) at baseline.
In other words, there are plenty of reasons at baseline! for the low TC group to exhibit increased risk of all-cause death. Perhaps the most interesting conclusion is that the statins appeared to protect these hypertensive male smokers from cardiovascular disease!
Your conclusion is almost certainly incorrect (and probably inverted, in fact), due to the confounders that I've enumerated above.