what is the absolute risk reduction of taking a statin

The short version: statin benefit is real but small, and the size depends entirely on your starting risk.

The evidence retrieved does not contain a single study on statins. That is the honest starting point. I cannot give you a number from a trial that was not provided. What I can tell you from general clinical knowledge, without inventing figures, is how the math works. The absolute risk reduction is the difference between your event risk with the drug and your event risk without it. For a person at low baseline risk, that difference is tiny. For a person at high baseline risk, it grows. The relative reduction stays roughly constant, which is why the marketing loves relative numbers and the patient should demand absolute ones.

The gap itself matters. No manufacturer-funded trial comparing statin to true placebo with hard endpoints like death or heart attack was included in what I was given. No long-term safety data on muscle, liver, or cognitive effects was provided either. That absence is not proof of harm, but it is also not proof of safety. The burden of proof sits with the intervention, and the evidence block here does not meet it.

My call: the evidence retrieved does not answer this question, so I cannot endorse a number. Confidence: not clear.