Another study has raised new questions about potential links between cholesterol-lowering statin drugs and diabetes.

In new research published in Diabetologia — the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes — Finnish scientists have found the use of statins is associated with a 46 percent increase in the risk of developing diabetes.

Previous studies have suggested an increased risk of developing diabetes associated with statin use, but have been inconclusive or limited in scope, Medical Xpress reports.

But the new study — led by Markku Laakso, with the Institute of Clinical Medicine at the University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital — is the most rigorous to date to reach such conclusions.

For the study, the research team tracked statin treatment on the risk of Type 2 diabetes and deterioration of blood sugar control in 8,749 non-diabetic Finnish men over a 6-year period.

Over that time, 625 men were diagnosed with diabetes. Follow up comparisons found that patients treated with statins were 46 percent more likely to develop diabetes than those not treated with statins, even after researchers discounted such potential other metabolic factors as age, weight, physical inactivity, smoking, alcohol intake, and family history of diabetes.

"The association of statin use with increased risk of developing diabetes is most likely directly related to statins decreasing both insulin sensitivity and secretion," the researchers concluded.

"Statin therapy was associated with a 46 percent increased risk of type 2 diabetes after adjustment for confounding factors, suggesting a higher risk of diabetes in the general population than previously reported."