Taking aspirin daily does little to prevent heart attack or stroke in healthy older adults and may increase the risk “hazardous bleeding complications”.
Research from a Monash University-led team found healthy older adults who took a low-dose of aspirin daily experienced a higher risk of a major haemorrhage without any overall cardiovascular benefit.
First author Professor Rory Wolfe said the new study looked at 15,668 Australian and American adults predominantly aged 70 years or over, who previously entered a 2018 clinical trial without any history of cardiovascular disease events, dementia, or independence-limiting physical disability.
Professor Wolfe said the original trial had followed participants for a number of years of random allocation of either 100mg of aspirin daily or a placebo.
He said the new extension study meant data from more than eight years of work could be analysed.
“During the combined follow-up period there was no evidence overall of cardiovascular prevention with aspirin, but there was evidence of increased major haemorrhage risk in the group randomised to receive aspirin compared to those randomised to placebo.
“Surprising us, during the post-trial phase the participants who initially had been randomised to aspirin experienced a 17 percent increase in major adverse cardiovascular events compared to those initially randomised to placebo.”
Professor Wolfe said the overall findings suggested that the long-term use of aspirin may not only fail to provide cardiovascular protection in healthy older adults but also significantly increase the risk of hazardous bleeding complications.
“Our findings suggest that individuals taking aspirin for possible primary prevention of cardiovascular events should discuss with their doctors possibly stopping the drug, noting that this advice would not apply to anyone taking aspirin who had already experienced a cardiovascular event and was taking it to prevent recurrent events.”
Read the full study: Aspirin, cardiovascular events, and major bleeding in older adults: extended follow-up of the ASPREE trial.
