Whether to treat older adults with statin medications for primary prevention of cardiovascular events remains a clinical conundrum. This editorial discusses the exploratory analysis of patients 70 years or older in a trial that compared 20 mg/d of rosuvastatin with placebo for primary prevention in patients with elevated hs-CRP and low to moderate LDL cholesterol levels.

These new data help to address the uncertainty of time to benefit in older adults. Future research should focus on more accurate risk-prediction tools for patients older than 80 years and should evaluate whether hs-CRP adds additional information to risk prediction in seniors as hs-CRP levels increase with age.