OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether statin use affects the development of tuberculosis (TB) among patients with diabetes mellitus (DM).

METHODS This is a retrospective cohort study of patients with newly diagnosed type 2 DM based on the South Korean nationwide claims database. The participants were type 2 DM patients aged 20-99 years who were newly treated with anti-diabetic drugs between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2010. Patients who had statin prescriptions before a diagnosis of diabetes or were diagnosed with TB before diabetes were excluded.

RESULTS Of 840,899 newly diagnosed type 2 DM patients, 281,842 (33.5%) patients were statin users and 559,057 (66.5%) were non-users. During the study period, 4075 [corrected] individuals were diagnosed with TB; the estimated incidence of TB in our cohort was 251/100,000 patient-years (95%CI 243-258). In comparison to non-TB patients, statin users were less frequent among TB patients (19.2% vs. 33.6%). After adjustment for potential baseline confounders, statin use was not associated with the development of TB in DM patients (aHR 0.98; 95%CI 0.89-1.07).

CONCLUSIONS TB development among newly diagnosed type 2 DM was considerable, and statin use among these diabetics was not associated with a protective effect on TB incidence.