This page is alzhub.org's plain-English summary of a published study, not the paper itself. It is generated from the record we hold for this study, sourced and linked below — check the original for the full text and methods.

53/100

✓ Peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 53 out of 100. Treatments

Topic: Amyloid, tau and blood-test diagnosis

Plain-language summary

There were no randomized trials found in the search. Reviewer's There is no good evidence to recommend statins for reducing the risk of Alzheimer's disease. There is, however, a growing body of biological, epidemiological, and limited but non-randomized clinical evidence that lowering serum cholesterol may retard the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. Mounting the clinical studies to determine the potential benefit of statin therapy should be a high priority for future research agendas.

What this study adds

Evidence grade: High

This is a trial. No randomized trials of statins for preventing Alzheimer's disease were found, so there is no good evidence to recommend them for this purpose. The authors note only limited non-randomized evidence that lowering cholesterol might affect the disease process, which is not enough to recommend statins.

Taken from this record’s own fields, not from reading the paper. The grade is assigned from the abstract’s wording; what that means.

Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris

APA 7th

Scott, H. D., & Laake, K. (2001). Statins for the prevention of Alzheimer's disease. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd003160

Vancouver

Scott HD, Laake K. Statins for the prevention of Alzheimer's disease. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews. 2001. doi:10.1002/14651858.cd003160. PMID: 11687176.

BibTeX

@article{scott2001-11687176,
  author  = {Scott, H. D. and Laake, K.},
  title   = {{Statins for the prevention of Alzheimer's disease}},
  journal = {The Cochrane database of systematic reviews},
  year    = {2001},
  doi     = {10.1002/14651858.cd003160},
  pmid    = {11687176},
  url     = {https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd003160}
}

Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. Check the citation against the original before you use it.

How to read this study

Design: this is a trial. Participants are assigned to a treatment or a comparison, so the key questions are who was enrolled, whether the comparison group got a placebo or nothing, how long people were followed, and whether the result is on a measure that matters to patients or on a biomarker. Open-label and small trials can overstate benefit.
Size: the record gives no participant count. Look for one in the original before trusting a pattern.
Effect: the record gives no effect size, so the summary above cannot say how large any difference was.

What the evidence grade means here

This page is graded high. alzhub.org assigns the grade automatically from keywords in the abstract, not from reading the paper. High means the abstract mentions a randomized design, a meta-analysis or a systematic review. It can add at most 5 of the 100 points in the study score, and it is a label about design, not a verdict on whether the findings are true.

New to reading papers? Six questions to ask of any Alzheimer’s study · how we score.

Key findings

There were no randomized trials found in the search.
Reviewer's There is no good evidence to recommend statins for reducing the risk of Alzheimer's disease.
There is, however, a growing body of biological, epidemiological, and limited but non-randomized clinical evidence that lowering serum cholesterol may retard the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease.
Mounting the clinical studies to determine the potential benefit of statin therapy should be a high priority for future research agendas.

Why it matters

No randomized trials of statins for preventing Alzheimer's disease were found, so there is no good evidence to recommend them for this purpose. The authors note only limited non-randomized evidence that lowering cholesterol might affect the disease process, which is not enough to recommend statins.

New to this subject? Start with our plain-English guide: Treatments →

Study details

Study designrandomized controlled trial
Evidence strengthHigh

How this study scored 53/100

Published in a leading specialty journal, and it is a systematic review of all the studies on the question. Scored zero for sample size, effect reported and studied in people because the record does not state it. We have no data on journal's citation record and impact for its field and year, so those were left out: it earned 48 of the 90 points we could judge it on, which is 53 out of 100.

Component	Points	Why
Journal tier	9 / 10	Tier 2 — leading specialty journal (The Cochrane database of systematic reviews)
Journal's citation record	— / 4	No journal record from OpenAlex — left out of this score
Study design	12 / 12	A systematic review of all the studies on the question (from PubMed type “Systematic Review”)
Strength of evidence	5 / 5	Rated “high” in our summary
Peer-review validation	10 / 10	Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal.
How recent	1 / 5	2001 — older than 20 years, still counted
Sample size	0 / 4	Participant count not stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Effect reported	0 / 3	No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Studied in people	0 / 3	Not stated whether this was studied in people — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Randomized / blinded	0 / 2	A review of other studies — randomization is not credited here
Times cited	4 / 7	Cited 90 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10)
Citations per year	2 / 5	3.3 citations a year over 27 year(s) since 2001
Impact for its field and year	— / 6	No field-weighted citation impact (OpenAlex has none yet) — left out of this score
Cited by studies here	0 / 6	No other study in this library cites it
Still being cited	0 / 4	Cited 0 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex)
Senior author's track record	2 / 4	Last-listed author Knut Laake: h-index 25 (OpenAlex, whole career)
Institution's track record	1 / 3	Brown University: institution h-index 1,120 (OpenAlex)
Multicenter collaboration	0 / 3	OpenAlex lists 1 institution(s) in 1 country — scores zero (affiliation lists can be incomplete)
Indexed in PubMed	2 / 2	Indexed in PubMed (PMID 11687176)
Free to read	0 / 2	Behind a paywall — scores zero
Points	48 / 90	Scored on 18 of 20 parts. We have no data for the rest, so they are left out: 48 of the 90 points we could judge it on is 53 out of 100.
Total	53 / 100	—

What each of these 20 components measures, and what this score is not →

Read the original

May need a subscription Unpaywall, Europe PMC and OpenAlex found no free copy of the full text (checked 10 Oct 2026), so the publisher may charge for it. The PubMed abstract is free.

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