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We thank Clockaerts et al for their thoughtful commentary on our paper and will address a number of their comments. They expressed concern regarding lack of verification of our data related to statin use, duration of use and dosage, and indicated these data were based on self-report. While we acknowledged in our paper1 that we did not have dosage data, the verification was that participants brought their medications with them during yearly follow-up visits and we were able to confirm that statins were prescribed for these patients. This approach was not as valid as a pill count but, in our view, is more rigorous than self-report.
Clockaerts et al accounted for duration of statin use by examining effects for those with 1–119 days, 120–364 days and 365 days or greater of statin use at 50% or more of the recommended daily dosage. Our approach was to use the yearly follow-up visit prescription data indicating 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4 years of statin use to examine the effects on changes in …
Footnotes
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Competing interests None.
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Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.